Customer Reviews

Wild About Books (Irma S and James H Black Honor for Excellence in Children's Literature (Awards))

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

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.

Wow. Grade-A book and tons of fun that a mom (and dad) can really love.

As mentioned by a previous reviewer, the rhythm and rhyme are wonderful. We read a great deal of poetry -Seuss, Goose, Silverstein, Emerson, Whitman -- and the quality of Ms. Sierra's prose really stands out as being worth the reading.

And, of course, hubby and I really like that all of the excitement is about books. [We're big book readers in our family, but I don't think enough good press can be had for books, reading and libraries.]

The artwork is imaginative and fun as well, with plenty of the more uncommon children's animals listed. Onyx and skinks, gnu and bandicoots, for example.

Five Stars. Great read-aloud. Great rhythm and rhyme. Fun pictures. It all adds up to a good time for children and adults alike. Definitely worth buying.

A sample follows so
you may judge for yourself:

"Raccoons read alone and baboons read in bunches,
And llamas read dramas while eating their llunches.

Hyenas shared jokes with the red-bellied snakes,
And they howled and they hissed till their funny bones ached."

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.

What a clever idea! And this author is very imaginative too.

My friend's little 9-year-old just loved it! Animals reading books was very appealing to him ... and to me too!

The illustrations were so fantastic I just had to show them to my granddaughter who is an artist in Silicon Valley. Way cool, she agreed.

"It started the summer of 2002,
When the Springfield librarian, Molly McGrew,
By mistake drove her bookmobile into the zoo.
Molly opened the door, and she let down the stair,
Turned on the computer, and sat in her chair

At first all the animals watched from a distance,
But Molly could conquer the strongest resistance."

And so begins this wonderful little story of how all of the animals in the zoo were introduced to book and to reading. The entire book is a continuous rhyme; and a well done one I might add. With its sing-song beat it absolutely captivates the little one when it is read to them

We are introduced to all of the animals living here, one after the other (even the bugs) and what their reading tastes are.

The art work here is great...sort of impressionistic with great detail thrown in for good measure and even a bit of the primitive pops-up here and there. Actually, the style Marc Brown uses in this one is rather unique and is quite eye catching - both in execution and in color combinations and blends.

Children instantly relate to the animals by putting themselves in the place of all the critters when it comes to picking out books. This is a wonderful book to encourage good reading habits and creates interest among the wee ones concerning books and what can be found in them.

The oversized pages and paintings along with the rhyming beat make this one an ideal group read. Much discussion can be mined from each page of this book. Kids like animals; they like looking at them and talking about them and when you mix those likes with books you have a very useful motivating and teaching tool.

I like this work. I wish I had written it and wish I had the ability to create the art work that is displayed her. This one is a winner all the way.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

Our four and a half year old son loves this book so much he reads it every chance he gets (and that means several times a day - especially in the car). He starts at the beginning of the book and reads out loud: "Wild About Books By Judy Sierra, Pictures by Marc Brown..." He's got the ENTIRE thing memorized and has even learned new words, like "REDUNDANT" from Ms. Sierra's creative writing! Thank you so much Judy Sierra for such a wonderfully, kid-friendly book! Our whole family loves it!

Author Judy Sierra's playful, rhythmical, rhyming story of animals and books, combined with Marc Brown's cheerful, fanciful, lushly colored pictures, makes for a delightful book so enjoyable that it's hard to find words sufficient to describe it. The text is worthy of Dr. Seuss, and it's appropriate that this book is dedicated to the good doctor. I was immediately drawn to the book by its cover art, then found that what's inside is even better!

This is the tale of a Springfield librarian, Molly McGrew, who by mistake drives her bookmobile into a zoo. The birds and beasts go wild about all the marvelous books she brings. Here are a couple of my favorite bits: "She even found waterproof books for the otter, who never went swimming without Harry Potter"; "A tree kangaroo, who adored Nancy Drew, Began solving mysteries right there at the zoo, Such as, Why were the bandicoot's books overdue?" And pay close attention to the pictures, where you will see the animals reading books such as "The Wizard of Oz," "Peter Pan," "Goodnight Moon" and "Candide."

Since the animals don't always handle the books gently, Molly must give lessons in treating books right. Soon some animals start writing their own books, and other animals review them. With so many new books, Molly decides to start a branch library at the zoo, called the Zoobrary, to be run by the animals.

"Wild About Books" is fun, and funny, a read-aloud treat and a feast for the eyes, a celebration of animals and books, reading and writing. And this is one picture book that parents are sure to enjoy at least as much as their children do. Everyone will be wild about this wonderful, beautiful book!