Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-The sheer bliss of settling into a good book without being interrupted by spoilers is the topic of this title. A boy is so excited and filled with anticipation to read a good book, yet each time he begins a new one, lively animals share their favorite parts and ruin the story for him. From birds to bears to giraffes, everyone has an opinion they want to share with him about the book he is reading. The harder he tries to elude them, the more the animals multiply and chase him. Wherever he goes-his home, the forest, the jungle, the mountains, the sea-the animals find him and try to tell him what is in store for him. The illustrations are colorful, and the book is mostly written in dialogue bubbles. Much in the vein of Jon Klassen's I Want My Hat Back, this title leaves readers to assume an unexpected ending for the boy. VERDICT A fun storytime selection for audiences with a good sense of humor.-Vivian Ho, Port Washington Public Library, NY © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Call it a preemptive strike: L schools children who are new to reading (and probably more likely to be the spoiler than the spoilee) on the evils of the spoiler. A bespectacled boy (his glasses are huge and red) is sooo excited to read his new book. He settles in under a tree and starts turning pages. Before he gets very far, though, three noisy birds with a lot to say poke their beaks into his business: Ooh, I loved that book! Me too! Can you believe her best friend turns out to be a robot? And that her hat was actually a time machine?! The books pattern is set: boy selects book, boy seeks out quiet spot to read, boys experience is spoiled by creatures whove already read the book, boy pleads with them to, next time, just let him finish. The story ends with a metafictive twist thats a clever play on getting lost in a book. Roxass mixed-media illustrations take the boyand readerson an imaginative journey, from what looks like a very cheery library building to a cave, a jungle, the mountains, the sea. The perspective is varied, from close-ups of the smiling or frustrated child to more crowded, hectic spreads showing all of the animals butting in. Theres lots of forward momentum; in trying to evade the creatures, the boy is almost always moving toward the right and thus toward the page turn. Theres also a built-in lesson about how books work for new readersand about how to be considerate when discussing a favorite book in front of others. elissa gershowitz (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A light-skinned child with a zigzag thatch of brown hair and enormous spectacles searches for a quiet place to read.It's not so easy. Birds lean down from the tree he has sat beneath to overshare. "Oooh, I loved that book!" says one. "Me too! Can you believe her best friend turned out to be a robot?" says another. And so it goes. Child gets a book; child finds a place to read uninterrupted. Alas, the animals continue to harass the child with comments that ruin each new story chosen. Page after page, the child is hounded by animals who need to share what happens next as the child repeatedly begs them to "LET ME FINISH!" The tale turns meta as the child seems to enter the book through an apparent rip in the paper forest. Observant readers will notice that the child is fleeing unwanted commentary by climbing through the physical book, though the logical superstructure is hard to discern. A significant misstep occurs when the protagonist swims with the precious book tucked under one arm with no consequences to its physical structure. The retro cartoonish art (which looks like a combination of colored pencil and digital art) in a palette of tans, mustards, and olive green, with bright splashes of pinks, purples, and teal, lends a pleasingly silly air to the flora and fauna.By the end, the relationship of tale to meta-tale is so unclear that readers may be left scratching their heads. (Picture book. 5-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
