Wild About Books

Rating:
Summary: The Imagination of Judy Sierra is Wild!
Review: A love of reading is one of the first things parents should teach their children - reading books, signs, newspapers, cereal boxes and reading for life! Ms. Sierra's book, Wild About Books, takes that love of reading a step beyond by showing how animals of all kinds can love books, too!

Can you imagine a yak reading about grasses? A trout reading about flies? What about an elephant reading about the latest stealth methods?

Judy Sierra can! And Marc Brown can draw these amazing animals, too!

As a mom with four avid readers, Wild About Books is a wonderful, imagination-opening adventure into the zoobrary - combining a love of reading with a love of animals. The Seuss-like words flow from your lips as fast as the rabbits and gnus can turn the pages. The ideas and conversations that flowed after reading this book were nearly as much fun as the books - one daughter wanted to go directly to our local zoo...another took the book outside to read to our dog...the youngest wanted to know more about each animal...and on and on!

Books are written to be read and listened to. They are illustrated to draw the reader into the story content. Ms. Sierra and Mr. Brown have truly captured their young audience with both - giving insight into a flowing zoo world, while opening up the imagination of the child.

The Queen's kids rate Wild About Books all 10 piggies!


Rating:
Summary: Wild about books
Review: I bought one for each of my two grandchildren and plan on it as christmas gifts for nieces and nephews! This book is delightful and fom babies to school age children, I'm sure adults will enjoy reading it to children of all ages. I loved the story,the huge variety of animals, ryhming words, bright colours and illustrations. The ideas of what books the animals read according to their species were very cute. Having worked in a library for the past 8 years it was wonderful to see the authors subtle hints on teaching children on how to respect and take care of books and the plugs for other great titles and authors. Books are a wonderful gift that can be opened again and again.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: My three year old son and I love this new book! It has a Dr. Seuss flavor to it which makes it fun and easy to read. It did start more conversations about zoo animals that we don't normally talk about at this age too which has been fun.

Rating:
Summary: The first picture book seen that references Harry Potter
Review: The magic formula that separates picture books into money-making hits and so-so splashes has never been satisfactorily explained to me. Take, for example, "Wild About Books" by Judy Sierra. This is an author who's greatest hit thus far was a penguin book entitled, "Antarctic Antics". The illustrator of this book, Marc Brown, is perhaps the better known of the two due to his hit book series (and subsequent tv show) "Arthur". Still, even taking "Arthur" into account, it isn't as if a book touched by the magic hand of Mr. Brown is guaranteed instant Top Ten on the New York Times Bestseller list status. Yet for weeks on end, that is exactly where this particular puppy has steadfastly remained. There is something about "Wild About Books" that speaks to people. I'm not sure if it's the Seussian wordplay, the literary name-dropping, or the moral of the story (i.e. read books) but this work has touched something deep in a great many American consumers. As it is, the book is a fine read. No, it's not going to blow you away with its wit and wisdom. The pictures, while fine, are not breathtaking. The rhymes scan nicely but aren't particularly new. I liked the book, no question. I'm just a little baffled by its success.

In this tale we hear about a bookmobile librarian by the name of Molly McGrew who, on one bright and beautiful day, accidentally drove her portable library into the zoo. Not the least bit disturbed by her mistake, Molly lures the animals into her facilities with loud eclectic readings of Dr. Seuss (to which this author owes more than a small debt of thanks). The animals, thus lured and apparently literate as well, find that the bookmobile is stocked with just the kinds of books that appeal to them. The beavers read, "How to Build Dams" (wouldn't they already know?), the crocodiles read "Peter Pan", and the giraffes read books on skyscrapers, basketball players, and redwood trees. Over time, Molly teaches the animals proper book etiquette. And so enamored are they of their books that they start writing them as well. There's a wonderful section in which a scorpion critic critiques various insect haikus it finds (my favorite being, "A cannibal twig, Silently devours a leaf - Eating, not eaten" to which the critic replies, "Pretentious"). Some even make entire books and, in the ultimate act of a truly civilized society, build a library of their own. And so, the author warns, if you are searching for animals at the zoo and don't see them, never fear. "They are snug in their niches, their nests, and their nooks, going wild, simply wild, about wonderful books".

I'm waiting for a snobby reviewer to note that in a passage that clearly states that the llamas were reading dramas, the accompanying picture displays two such beasts reading, "Romeo and Juliet" and another reading "Candide", neither of which are technically considered dramas. I could be that reviewer, but I really liked that section. Heck, a thorough rereading of this book has given me a clearer appreciation of its construction as well. The scorpion haiku section is inspired and will actually serve to teach kids difficult-to-define terms like, "Pretentious" and "Redundant". I was also rather delighted that the librarian in this book is not your stereotypical bun/shhing finger/thick black glasses marm we've seen in so many tales before. This gal is spunky and vibrant. Molly wears pink pants with orange and yellow striped jackets (and some pretty kickin' black boots as well). She gleefully stomps down those old-timey images of librarians as fuddy-duddies.

There's a lot of name-dropping that goes on in this book, you know. For example, "Harry Potter", "The Cat In the Hat", and "Nancy Drew" all get quoted by name while subtler plays and tales like "The Iceman Cometh" (penned by a penguin, of course), "Uncle Vanya", and "Goodnight Moon" show up visually. Actually, it's fair to say that Brown's visual gags far outweigh the book's written ones. Of course, the illustrations in this story are a bit simplistic. They're colorful and inventive when it comes to books and various animals' reading preferences. I also liked (and this is entirely a personal preference so bear with me) that when Sierra mentions an animal, Brown makes sure to draw it. Therefore, a section that mentions, "a mink and a moose, a wombat, an oryx, a lemur, a lynx, eight elephant calves, and a family of skinks", really shows every single one of those animals! And, by extension, kids can learn what skinks and oryxes look like. So now you have a book that's scientific, great with the rhymes, and about the joys of reading. What's not to like?

Of course, the only reason I'm not giving this book five stars is because while it's fun to go through and enjoyable to give to one's children, it's drawings aren't particularly beautiful, it's writing a pale knock-off of Dr. Seuss, and its storyline fun but not all that original. And yet I'm delighted and wowed by the reception it's received. If you're wondering if you can ever trust the New York Times Bestseller list again after "Walter the Farting Dog" stayed on it for so very long, definitely consider this a return to form. It's worth reading to your children and it's a fun fine book.


Rating:
Summary: Wild about wild about books
Review: What a totally delightful book! My granddaughter loved it, and equally important, so did I as the outloud reader. Judy Sierra's wit is clever enough to appeal to both the child and the child within us. Recommend it totally.

Rating:
Summary: great book for young and old
Review: Wild About Books is one of those kids' books that runs on all cylinders. The premise, the librarian drives the bookmobile into the zoo where the animals get hooked on reading, is original and full of opportunity. The language is simply fantastic--playful, sophisticated, rhythmic, full of great sounds and rhymes, and filled with puns aimed at older readers and adults. The artwork matches the language--bright and cheery, varied in color and size and layout, filled with as many visual jokes as linguistic ones. The book doesn't condescend to its intended audience of young children or to its secondary one--the adult reading it aloud. It is a bit long for the very young (two and under) but certainly three and up will find it a wonderful read and those who are between two and three will enjoy it as much if in truncated readings. Those 30 and up will enjoy it even more. One of the best picture books of the past few years and highly recommended.