Customer Reviews

I Hate To Read!

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This is another of those books that have been around for quite some time now and has probably never received the attention is so deserves. It was published in 1992. I have seen it on several library shelves and after examining the last one I found that it had been read quite a lot which fired up my curiosity as I had never heard of the thing...! There is a sequel, I Still Hate to Read! which is usually a pretty good sign that someone, somewhere was a ware of this first offering.

This is the story of Victor Dickens who just hates to read. Now Victor is a pretty good lad...most of the time.

"He lamost always wore his crash helmet when he practiced wheelies on his skateboard.
And once a year he allowed his mother to comb his hair with a dab of mousse for the class picture.
He ate artichokes and liver regularly, that is to say, whenever his dog, Page, was not around at dinnertime."

But alas, Victor had a flaw...as stated...he hated to read!

One evening he was setting at his desk pretending to read while waiting for this favorite T.V. show to start (T.V. being Victor's favorite pastime), when suddenly a crocodile in a white trench coat crawled from the page and told Victor to jump into his pocket "if you like to read." Of course Victor protested, refused to enter the pocket because "I hate to read, and besides my favorite T.V. show starts at 8:00!"

And the adventure begins. Page after page Victor is visited by some rather unique individuals which include a frantic little field mouse shouting form him to plant the coins, a pipe smoking parrot with a wooden leg dressed and speaking like a pirate, a white rabbit wearing black barn boots, a slimy frog with a broken feather in his hat and a beautiful princess who looked embarrassingly like Natalie Nickerson, a girl at school who had invited him to a birthday party.

This of course is a dream sequence. Will it cause Victor to turn from T.V. and join this odd crew found in the pages of the book?

No spoilers here...you must see for yourself!

Etienne Delessert illustrated this work and I must say an impressive bit of art is feature here. The artist had used earth-tone pastels as the overall background which have been punctuated by slashes of color which simply pop from the page. I don't remember seeing anything quite like the technique here...it was truly impressive! Each picture held a certain amount of whimsy, but extremely exciting and moving whimsy...if that is possible. After reading this work and examining it closely several times, I have to tell you that Delessert has moved way up my list of most favorite illustrators! Examine these pictures closely! You will be rewarded.

Examine the text closely...the author has an extremely acute sense of humor.

Love this book.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks