Publishers Weekly
11/01/2021
This humorous picture book by Greenfield follows a familiar premise: the narrator, a reluctant reader, does not want to read the book in their hands. What follows is a meta text filled with curious asides and snarky ruminations on words, sentences, paragraphs, and more, both on an individual level and structurally: “Some words are just plain RIDICULOUS,” one page reads in handwriting-like text. “Take the word DOUBT for example,” the next page continues: “What is a ‘B’ doing in there???” A goldenrod box reads, pointing to the word in question. “If no one can HEAR the B why do we have to SEE it???” Lowery’s art, done in pencil and digital media, evokes a child’s notebook, with plentiful simple doodles, word art, underlines, boxes, and more against colorfully eye-catching pages and graph paper–evoking grids in this visually compelling narrative. Ages 4–8. (Nov.)
From the Publisher
Praise for I Don't Want to Read This Book:
“I Don't Want to Read This Book . . . is in the same family as books like The Book With No Pictures and The Serious Goose. A funny read-aloud, it breaks the fourth wall and engages young readers who are normally reluctant to pick up a book.” —People.com
“This satirical picture book . . . hilariously lists all the things he’d rather be doing than actually reading this book.” —Variety
“Hilarious and thoughtful.” —Parents Magazine
“Invites reluctant readers on a wry, irreverent adventure, with exuberant drawings and graphics, and lots of winks to kids who will wink back.” —Romper
“Greenfield's irreverent text demolishes the fourth wall, and Lowery's peppy pencil and digital-media renderings of his words have a vibe reminiscent of a child's journal, with doodle-style drawings accenting his dynamic renditions of Greenfield's words. For avid and reluctant readers alike, this tongue-in-cheek, metafictive send-up of reading as a chore is delightfully unlikely to live up to its title.” —Shelf Awareness
“Genuinely funny . . . A feisty manifesto and appealing visual experience.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Silly, funny, and visually appealing, this work will appeal to reluctant and avid readers . . . A great classroom read-aloud bound to make listeners join in the fun.” —School Library Journal
“Colorfully eye-catching and visually compelling.” —Publishers Weekly
“Perfect for reluctant and avid readers alike, I Don’t Want to Read This Book will have kids cracking up on every page.” —Books to Borrow . . . Books to Buy
School Library Journal
12/17/2021
PreS-Gr 2—Silly, funny, and visually appealing, this work will appeal to reluctant and avid readers. An unseen narrator rails against having to read a book containing everything unpleasant: words, sentences, and especially paragraphs. The snarky, mischievous tone and colorful cartoonlike word art illustrations enhance the satire. A variety of typefaces and jumbled comments keep things interesting. The narrator questions the need for extraneous, unpronounced letters in words, such as "doubt" and for long words, such as " infinitesimal" for such small things. While castigating the entire concept of reading a whole book, the narrator actually reads the whole book, and in the process offers information to those joining him. VERDICT A great classroom read-aloud bound to make listeners join in the fun.—Eva Elisabeth VonAncken, formerly at Trinity-Pawling Sch., Pawling, NY
Kirkus Reviews
2021-10-13
After declaring refusal to do so, an unseen narrator reads this book.
The book’s title appears as a Post-it note attached to the cover. With lighthearted, whimsical word-art drawings, hand-lettering, a clipped pace, and a palette dominated by a warm peach tone, the story features a wry and opinionated offstage narrator who provides metatextual commentary about the scorned book at hand. “Let me guess...Words,” says the snarky narrator about what to expect when opening the book. Some words, such as the word doubtwith its useless letter B, are “plain ridiculous.” And then there are unnecessarily large words, such as infinitesimal, which (confoundingly) means “small.” By now, the narrator has reached peak crankiness. The next objects of the narrator’s ire are sentences, described as “too many words all smushed together,” followed by paragraphs (“Just looking at a paragraph exhausts me”) and chapters. (Cue Chapter 2!) The hyperbolic vexation is genuinely funny as medium and message converge. Words, sentences, paragraphs, an entire chapter, and the ending are presented in this anti-reading diatribe, the enddepicted in triumphant, celebratory fireworks. Greenfield’s gentle satire and Lowery’s genuinely entertaining cartoon translation of prose to art might charm even avid readers (who may remember once agreeing with some of the narrator’s sentiments). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A feisty manifesto and appealing visual experience for those who find books thrust upon them. (Picture book. 4-8)
