The Incredible Book-Eating Boy [Hardcover]

Oliver Jeffers (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

Like many children, Henry loves books. But Henry doesn’t like to read books, he likes to eat them. Big books, picture books, reference books . . . if it has pages, Henry chews them up and swallows (but red ones are his favorite). And the more he eats, the smarter he gets—he’s on his way to being the smartest boy in the world! But one day he feels sick to his stomach. And the information is so jumbled up inside, he can’t digest it! Can Henry find a way to enjoy books without using his teeth?

With a stunning new artistic style and a die-cut surprise, Oliver Jeffers celebrates the joys of reading in this charming and quirky picture book. It’s almost good enough to eat.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. PreSchool-Grade 3—Henry loves books. In fact, he literally devours them. And the more he eats, the smarter he gets. When he starts eating too many too fast, he can no longer digest them, and their contents get all mixed up. The simple cartoon illustrations twinkle with humor and feeling. Done in paint and pencil on smart backdrops—pages from old books—the pictures set the stage for the quirky story. When forced to give up eating his favorite volumes, Henry eventually learns to enjoy reading them. However, an actual bite taken out of the back cover suggests he still succumbs to the occasional indulgence. This well-done package will charm its audience. The snappy text works well for reading aloud, but older children will enjoy exploring the subtle details hidden in the illustrations and backgrounds.—Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Henry loves books--eating them, that is. The more books he eats, the smarter he becomes, prompting him to devour them at an alarming rate. Henry imagines that if he keeps eating at his current pace, he could eventually become the smartest person on earth. Unfortunately, he starts to get sick from eating so many books, and everything he has learned becomes all jumbled up. Eventually Henry gives up eating books and finds that it can also be satisfying to read them. The text is straightforward and minimal, but Jeffers' illustrations ("created with paint, pencil and Letraset on pages from old books that librarians were getting rid of, the artist found, or people were throwing out") cleverly convey why Henry might find books so enticing. The cover is a pleasing shade of chocolate, and many of the pages look good enough to eat, with print, lines, and texture from the recycled book pages cropping up in unlikely places (see the front cover of this issue). Children will enjoy sinking their teeth into these detail-rich, delectable pictures. Randall Enos
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Philomel (April 19, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399247491
• ISBN-13: 978-0399247491
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,053 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > Children's Books > Cooking with Kids

More About the Author

Oliver Jeffers is an artist, designer, illustrator and writer from Northern Ireland. He graduated from the University of Ulster with a degree in Visual Communication.

From figurative painting and installation, to illustration and picture-book making, his work has been exhibited in New York, Dublin, London, Sydney, Washington DC, and Belfast.

He is widely known for his picture books for children, published by HarperCollins UK and Penguin USA. How to Catch a Star debuted in 2004 to critical acclaim, and Lost and Found (2005), won the Nestles Smarties Book Prize Gold Medal 2006, the Blue Peter Book Award 2006 and was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal the same year. The Incredible Book Eating Boy (2007) won the Irish Book Awards Children's Book of the Year, and his fourth Book The Way Back Home was released in September 2007 and The Great Paper Caper will be publlished in September 2008.

Jeffers' style of illustration uses mixed medium and is recognised for its subtle narrative and use of space in composition. As a freelance illustrator he has worked for clients such as Orange UK, Lavazza, Sony PSP, RCA Records, Starbucks, candycollective, Blanka, Graphic, the Vacuum and the Irish Times.

Jeffers' artwork consists of figurative painting executed on either canvas or three dimensional objects, both found and made. His most recent solo show (Additional Information, Belfast December 2006) studied the balance between form and content by drawing parallels between the arts and sciences, in which figurative oil paintings were over laid with mathematical equations.

As a co-founder of the art collective OAR, along with Rory Jeffers, Mac Premo and Duke Riley, their exhibitions include 9 Days in Belfast, book and the award winning BUILDING.

In 2007, Jeffers was the official World Book Day Ilustrator.

Lost and Found became Oliver's first book to made into animation by London based Studio AKA, screening on Christmas Eve 2008 on Channel 4.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good story kid will eat up, June 4, 2007

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Incredible Book-Eating Boy (Hardcover)

Henry loves books. But not like other children love books. No, Henry loves to eat books. Any and all books, though red ones are his favorite. And Henry notices that the more books he eats, the smarter he gets. Unfortunately, once he begins to eat many books in one sitting, the information gets all jumbled up and he doesn't know anything. Besides, it gives him a stomach ache and excessive library fines.

Can Henry enjoy books in any other way?

This lively story is made by its unique illustrations. There is a chomp taken out of the back cover, for Pete's sake! One could pour over them for hours and still find something new, I'm sure. On the flip side, there is a busyness to them, due to the background of every illustration being a book page, that can hamper the read on the first go through. This isn't a problem on successive reads, once the reader knows what to read, but may put some readers off in the bookstore. I encourage readers to give it a second try because the book is too fun to pass over.

The text is also fun, don't get me wrong. And I love that it makes books fun, intelligence inducing and "cool."

Armchair Interviews says: This is a great book for any child's library.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deliciously different, September 2, 2007

By 

Julee Rudolf "book snob" (Oak Harbor, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Incredible Book Eating Boy (Book & CD) (Paperback)

One day while walking his cat, Henry gets a hankering for the taste of a word, a page, and eventually an entire book. Pretty soon he is eating several volumes in a single sitting, and the knowledge in the books is going straight to his brain. He dreams of being "the smartest person on Earth." And then his taste for books goes south as do his book smarts. Fortunately, he figures out another way to get smart that isn't so hard on the stomach. Unique pages and illustrations relating to books are incorporated into the "book" theme. Probably best for seven to nine year olds, and their parents.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars eat it up, March 17, 2008

By 

M Faith - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Incredible Book-Eating Boy (Hardcover)

This is such a charming book! As so many reviewers have mentioned, the visual details are amazing. Yes, the story is simple, and I think that allows us to enjoy all the extras Jeffers gives us on every page. The plot is predictable to adults, but my son was quite engaged and even a bit worried when we read "This is the worst bit." My 4-year-old loves it and my 2-year-old repeated "monumental" multiple times while we were reading it for the first time. I really enjoyed finding a book with an obvious message, agenda even, that doesn't overdo it.