The Book That No One Wanted to Read

Product Information

You can hear the author's voice in the Book's words, it's definitely him. I liked the fact you can easily tell the Book, the boy and the narration apart through text font, making it simple to follow in your head. I liked the word definitions, silly Walliams-esque diagrams, lists and comic illustrations. The book begins to tell us a story about a book no one wanted to read called of course " The Book That No One Wanted To Read". Meta meta meta! Lovely stuff with gorgeous illustrations. If you like books (and should you even be on goodreads if you don’t? Should there be a badreads with a reverse rating system…?), with a bit life philosophy weaved through, this is for you. A good librarian doesn’t just look out for the less prominent books either… as we all should… with just a little bit of heart for everything So, what happened to the book that nobody wanted to read? There’s a plot twist! I leave it for you to find out when you read this book 😉.

Yet what if this book, that is entirely happy in its own space, might be disturbed? Then again, what if this brave child is undeterred when she hears a voice in her head, suggesting that she should ‘look at the other books. They’re far more interesting’? Might this lead her to investigate elsewhere? Then again, might the telepathic conversation lead her out of the library, or at least the Miscellany section? And I'd love to hear him narrate his own audio version. Though it wouldn't work half as well without the illustrations. He says " How would you describe YOU? Not the you in the reflection of your mirror, as that's just your cover, and by now we know about the trouble with covers - they don't tell the whole story. Why has nobody thought of this before?! Utter genius. A book, told as though by the book itself, filled with belly laughs, ire and actually a good lesson or two as well! Very funny, with brilliant illustrations. It should be called The Book That Everyone Wanted To Read."

I found this to be an ambitious and enjoyable read. The premise was clever and made me laugh a few times. This is a work of fiction that is aware of its own fictionality. The book is about a book that no one wants to read, and it explores the concept of how a book can be interesting even if no one wants to read it. We have a book telling us about books, teaching the reader new words they might not have known, and helping us get "inside" the mind of a book. We become a character in this books own story!

Being an adult, seeing it through more mature eyes, I took a deeper meaning away from it than he possibly intended? And I loved the messages it gave me. ❤️ The Book that No One Wanted to Read is slim, nondescript, corduroy coloured and hidden in the Miscellany section of the library. It likes it that way. It muses on libraries, readers and books, on why we select some books. After all ‘ They say you should never judge a book by its cover. But how else can you decide whether you might like it?’ Then again, what is a book? Is it invisible, really? After all, no-one really knows what’s inside in truth until they’re chosen. Overall, this has been an entertaining read and I am sure it scores with the children with its fantasy and imaginative storytelling also the funny drawings. A great way to inform our young readers to explore more of their reading choices, and probably to start writing stories (you would understand once you know the ending). Books can contain stories or facts about, and therefore be, virtually anything you can think of, but have you ever considered what a book might think about and feel? One neglected book in The Book That No One Wanted to Read, by Richard Ayoade and illustrated by Tor Freeman, has a chance to change its destiny when a reader encounters it and pulls it from a hiding spot on a high shelf, offering it a new future. He asks us what's underneath our covers? What are we actually like? ( I love how he's making us go deeper, into ourselves to dig more into who we are, inside.)It’s “sort of” a story, but it’s more just a conversation with the book about books! What bookworm wouldn’t love that?! The irony is that, just as the book says, I would have ignored this on the shelf because of the cover if it hadn’t been sent to me for a review - so I have to urge to be better than me and go out and buy it for yourself, cover and all. My first book from Ayoade, and I could not help but hear his voice in my head while reading it! ( He has a very distinct tone.) Us books need to be seen. We need to be held. We need to be heard. I think that's why children make the best readers, because they know that these things are also true of them.**” I sometimes wonder whether you couldn't say the same is true of us books. If no one can read us, what are we? I love the opening lines where it states how so many say we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, to which he rightly says, "but how else can you decide whether you might like it?"