READ TO ME: Look! I Wrote a Book! (And You Can Too!)

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

TITLE: Look! I Wrote a Book! (And You Can Too!)

Written by Sally Lloyd-Jones and illustrated by Neal Layton (Schwartz & Wade Books, July), 40 pages, $17.99 hardcover, $10.99 ebook

STORY: A girl explains each step of the book-authoring process. Her advice rollicks along, solving one true problem of storytelling after another. Example: "Here's a BAD beginning: First we stood up. Next we sat down. ... Here's a GOOD beginning: Praying mantises have six legs and mandibles and EAT THEIR HUSBANDS!"

She explains how to get people to buy your book: be friendly, give them cookies, let them play with your trucks, tie them to their chair. She explains that once your book is written and you are an author, you go back to being a normal person.

But she doesn't explain how her book has typeset lettering. Supposedly, the very book we are holding was written by this girl, and she shows examples of many handwritten books made using crayons. More confusing, crayon words sometimes interrupt her typeset sentences.

Would-be authors ages 4 to 8 will trip on this logic problem. One of the smartest letters to the editor of the old Arkansas Democrat Kids Club asked how the reporters had learned to write alphabet letters all the same size.

Other than that, Look! is a hoot.

— Celia Storey

Read to Me is a weekly review of short books.

Style on 08/19/2019

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