Book that no one wanted to read Author: Ayoade, Richard | ||
Price: $23.08 |
Summary:
Readers meet a book that has never been read, with a cover the boring color of a school lunch table and pages so dry they give bookworms indigestion. But what happens when this book meets a curious reader?
Illustrator: | Freeman, Tor |
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Accelerated Reader Information: Interest Level: MG+ Reading Level: 4.10 Points: 1.0 Quiz: 520642 |
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (+) (01/15/23)
Booklist (+) (12/01/23)
Full Text Reviews:
Booklist - 01/01/2023 *Starred Review* Claiming to be the first book that has ever written itself, this titular tome delivers a series of grievances to a “bookist” reader—from “Things That Grate My Gears” (“3. People who skip to the end. If the end was meant to come sooner, it’d be called ‘the middle.’”) to the shocking revelation that unwanted books are murdered (which is to say “pulped,” like a smoothie) and then recycled into toilet paper. At the same time, a catalog of things that make a book unwanted, like an unmemorable cover and writing so dry that even bookworms gag on it, leads to a dialogue about stories that ends with that unseen reader on the verge of assuming a new role in the relationship: writer. At, and to, that point, the literally liber-al narrator adds a final bit of useful writerly advice: to “make a point of making it fun.” Ayoade certainly has, and Freeman likewise cranks up the hilarity with loosely drawn cartoon images on every spread, ranging from unappealing book (and record) covers to fancies like a library maze (“This way to ‘WRITING BOOKS’ and ‘GETTING RICH’”), a shushing librarian erupting from a mound of toilet paper (talk about bookist), and people lining up to have ideas poured into their heads out of a dump truck. Could well leave even confirmed nonreaders tempted to turn over a new leaf. - Copyright 2023 Booklist.