I Don’t Want to Read This Book by Max Greenfield & Mike Lowery

 

I Don’t Want to Read This Book by Max Greenfield & Mike Lowery

(Scholastic Australia) PB RRP $19.99 ISBN 978 1 761202261

 Reviewed by Karen Hendriks

 Why would you read a book titled I Don’t Want to Read This Book? Because the title entices you to. Come and learn about those icky things in books like sentences, paragraphs and of course lots of words. Max Greenfield is a New York-born actor and his craft shines in this book.

 Greenfield has delivered a book that engages a young reader to read and have some hilarious fun. He uses strong statements that are super appealing to a child reader. I know it happens to be the title of this book but let me make myself very clear I really don’t want to read it. He also questions the reader and invites them into the book’s conversation.

First, we discover words. Greenfield magically plays with words, words a child likes and things they like. Look, most words are fine like cake, and You Tube but some words are just plain ridiculous. He knows kids are smart and he plays to this too. Kids like knowing big, long words like ‘infinitesimal’ which means small. How clever is that? We dive into sentences that are words smashed together with a full stop at the end. Then we move onto the dreaded paragraph which is exhausting when there are lots of them. Next, we meet chapters and the end. The voice is strong and works a treat in this book.

Mike Lowery is an author and New York Times bestselling illustrator who has worked on dozens of books for kids. His experience shows, and his knowledge of design and colour. The bright orange cover with pops of bright yellow and blue immediately catch the eye. The title page is loud with simple black text on white. Speech bubbles and blurbs are used with plain coloured backgrounds. He changes the sizing of text to emphasize messages. As the reader progresses through the book more colours come into play. It explodes into line, pattern, and colour when we reach the end. At times, the words are shaped to draw the eye to page turn. The endpapers feature a shade of egg blue with delicate bird and leaf patterning to great effect.

 I Don’t Want to Read This Book is a read aloud picture book for children aged 4-8 years old. It’s a book that just may encourage a reluctant reader to dive into books. I can see this book being a great resource for teachers as it’s a perfect book to share and is filled with information, too. Children like fun and this book is just that.