Wednesday, September 22, 2010

It's a Book! It's a Classic!

Every book lover needs a copy of this hilarious picture book, which perfectly captures why the old-fashioned "book" is still a necessity in today's technology-enamored world.  It's all done with large doses of humor  and simple appealing illustrations featuring a mouse, monkey and jackass. (Just the fact that author/illustrator Lane Smith can get away with calling the donkey a "jack-ass" in a children' book and it's still a hit with teachers and librarians is proof enough that this book is a classic).
Open to the book to the first page, where you'll find Monkey quietly reading a book, and his friend, the jackass, who asks:  "What do you have there?"  Monkey replies, "It's a book," to which the befuddled jackass asks, "How do you scroll down?"  And the story is off and running, with he jackass peppering the monkey with questions like "Do you blog with it?" and "Can it text? Tweet?" and "Do you need a password?"  Finally, the monkey just hands the book to the jackass, who settles down to read. The hours go by, the jackass is hooked and he's soon headed off to the library to get a book of his own, but not without a final parting comment from the clever little mouse hiding under the monkey's hat.  I read this book to my 11-year-old son, who laughed out loud and even put down his I-pod and logged off the computer for a few moments.  Great fun!  -- Erin  
 

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