This Is My Book by Mick Inkpen
| This Is My Book by Mick Inkpen | |
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| Category: For Sharing | |
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Reviewer: Keith Dudhnath
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| Summary: A fabulously clever picture book, playing with the text and the concept of what a book really is - one of the characters eats some of the letters, and others try to recover them. Highly recommended. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 32 | Date: September 2010 |
| Publisher: Hodder Children's Books | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-0340989630 | |
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The Snapdragon has swooped down and eaten the k of Book. He's also broken off a bit of the B, so it looks like the Bookmouse is saying This is my Poo. He's been eating the dots on top of the letter i wherever he can find it too, and spitting them out. What on earth can be done to stop the mean ol' Snapdragon?
What a super, super clever book! By making the text itself part of the story, Mick Inkpen has created a novel and exciting tale. Children who are learning to read will particularly love it as it breathes life into letters in a way they couldn't possibly have imagined. Whilst you might be concerned that younger children won't really get the joke, surprisingly they do. The choice of Poo as the first word to be altered immediately grabs their attention, and makes them want to give the book a go. It's not played for low humour, but the beginning is just cheeky enough to get the necessary giggles. With Ooooos stretching over the page, bits of words being broken off, and imaginative typesetting, children of all ages can see something is a bit different from most books, whilst the direct plot of defeating the Snapdragon means that they're never lost even if they're not 100% familiar with the letters.
Mick Inkpen's illustrations are as wonderful as they are in the much-loved Kipper books. His style is at once classic and unique, familiar, yet not to be taken for granted, simple yet evocative. At first, of course, you may more attention to everything that's going on with the text. However, the underlying quality of the pictures seeps through, and grows with subsequent readings.
This Is My Book isn't just novelty for novelty's sake. There's plenty of substance to back up the imaginative idea, which makes for a genuinely impressive and thrilling read. You'll want to share the cleverness with everyone, adult and child alike. Highly recommended.
Limelight Larry by Leigh Hodgkinson and Don't Read This Book! by Jill Lewis and Deborah Allwright are both super twists on the nature of what a picture book really is. We loved them all, and were lucky enough to interview Leigh Hodgkinson and Jill Lewis.
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You can read more book reviews or buy This Is My Book by Mick Inkpen at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy This Is My Book by Mick Inkpen at Amazon.com.
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