How would you teach someone to organize their thinking?

My son has to do a book report and has been struggling with it. Mostly, I think, it is a lack of motivation. He shouldn’t have to have homework over the summer, but he does. Still, he can extract much pain from his parents because he is perfectly willing not to do it, and we are not going to let him return to school empty handed.

But he has to do a book report. He has to describe the book. How? He has to describe characters. How do you do that? He has to assess the book. How?

How would you teach someone to organize their thinking about a book? What is important? How can you help a child learn to think? How should they organize their thinking? We’re talking 7th grade here, so let’s not use words that he won’t get.

He has finished the first draft as of now, but it was pure torture.