The life of a book isn't easy, especially when people judge you by your cover (not every book can be adorned with sparkly unicorns!). And this narrator should know--it's the book itself, and it has a lot of opinions. It gets irritated when readers bend its pages back, and it finds authors quite annoying. But it does have a story to tell. Through witty direct address and charming illustrations, 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 you, a curious reader? Multitalented author Richard Ayoade and award-winning illustrator Tor Freeman bring to life a hilariously subversive take on the nature of books and reading, with a heartening theme of finding the courage to tell our own stories. Readers of all ages will be delighted by the myriad bookish references and laughs on every page.
Tor Freeman graduated from Kingston University with a BA in illustration and has worked as an illustrator, author, and comics-maker ever since. She is the illustrator and creator of many children's books and comic strips, including The Toucan Brothers, the Olive series, and Welcome to Oddleigh. She was a Sendak Fellow and received a Jonathan Cape/Observer/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize. Tor Freeman lives and works in London.
British performer Ayoade kicks off this telling with a P.G. Wodehouse epigraph, setting the tone for a jocose metafictional narrative told from a book's point of view. . . an idiosyncratically charming read.
--Publishers Weekly
British actor, comedian, and filmmaker Richard Ayoade, known for his role in the show The IT Crowd, has whimsically highlighted how to choose and care for a book. . . . This title provides a quirky look at the quandary of getting lost in a library and forming amusing observations about bookworms. . . adorable, silly, and short. . . book lovers will feel seen.
--School Library Connection