Books about Books

I’m really into common themes in books, as you can see from my recent posts on the Cybils books. This set of reviews is all about books.

The Incredible Book Eating Boy
Written and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers
Philomel, 2007

Henry is a book-loving fanatic. He loves books so much he eats them. It started out with just a few words, then a few pages. But soon it became a bad habit and he was eating books, mostly red books, left and right.

Henry finds that his book eating habit makes him very smart. He eats books and his body absorbs the knowledge. But soon, book-eating, as one might imagine, makes him very sick. Everyone encourages him to quit. But it's hard.

Finally, he decides to stop his book-eating binge and READ them instead.

The paper on which the illustrations are done makes this book all about books. The illustrations are done on pages of old books which the author/illustrator Jeffers found were being thrown out. Egads! Well, these pages shine once again—recycled into a new book. This book’s illustrations make it hilarious! The author writes words to caption some of the pictures in addition to the actual text of the book. My favorite touch is the bite mark on the back cover corner.

A great book for book-lovers. And I’ve put in a request at my local library for more of Irish author/illustrator Mr. Jeffers’ other books.


The Boy Who Was Raised By Librarians
Written by Carla Morris
Illustrated by Brad Sneed
Peachtree, 2007

If you are a librarian, you will probably like this book because you probably know a kid like this main character. If you are a kid who spends a lot of time in the library, you will probably like this book because you know what it’s like to love the place so much you want to hang out there.

Melvin is a curious little kid. In fact, curiosity is what brings him to the library. He wants to know about everything so he goes to the local library and the local librarians to find out more about everything. These little ladies help him find books to satisfy his own interests, to help him with research for school projects, and they even feed him a steady supply of books for the summer reading programs.

The librarians love helping Melvin. “They couldn’t help it. That’s how librarians are.” And these librarians make such an impression on Melvin with their books that Melvin becomes a librarian himself.