Richie's Picks: IT'S A BOOK by Lane Smith, Roaring Brook, August 2010,
32p., ISBN: 978-1-59643-606-0
"Words in papers, words in books
Words on TV, words for crooks
Words of comfort, words of peace
Words to make the fighting cease
Words to tell you what to do
Words are working hard for you
Eat your words but don't go hungry
Words have always nearly hung me"
-- Tom Tom Club, "Wordy Rappinghood"
Remember the big to-do in certain quarters over a young character's
innocent use of the word "scrotum" in Susan Patron's Newbery Medal-winning THE
HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY? Well, that's what came to mind this week at Book Expo
as I listened to a bookseller telling me how she is sure that none of her
school library customers will be buying Lane Smith's delightful,
literacy-promoting picturebook IT'S A BOOK. As with the Patron book, the supposed
controversy involves a word.
The deal here is that one of the story's three animal characters is
identified and depicted as a jackass (male donkey) and that Lane then subtly
employs a humorous play on the word (being that the other dictionary meaning of
jackass is "fool.")
I am sure that if a bookseller has convinced himself or herself that
school library customers won't be buying the book, then he or she will
inevitably become part of the same process of self-censorship that certain
booksellers and school librarians practiced with the Patron book. And that's a
shame because if this one word was not in IT'S A BOOK then everybody would,
instead, be talking about its substantial award potential and its capacity
for encouraging kids to get away from the computer and pick up a book.
"How do you scroll down?
"I don't. I turn the page. It's a book."
IT'S A BOOK is a fun little story about a monkey who is reading a book
and the baffled jackass who is asking him questions about how it works.
"Can it text?
"No.
"Tweet?
"No.
"Wi-Fi?
"No.
"Can it do this? ZOOT
"No...it's a book."
Then, when the monkey persuades him to actually look at the book, Jackass
becomes totally engaged in the story and does not want to return it.
And so the monkey prepares to go to the library (where he can borrow
another book) and the jackass tells him, "Don't worry, I'll charge it up when
I'm done!"
The mouse character, who earlier appears visually (as part of another play
on words), but who has -- to this point -- been silent, responds:
"You don't have to...it's a book, Jackass."
Now, if I am a kid who hears about this book and wants to check it out --
and I am betting that IT'S A BOOK is going to get a considerable amount of
press (in addition to the great trailer already posted on Amazon) -- then
what am I going to think as far as its absence from my elementary or middle
school library. Again, this is an exceptional picturebook by an A-list
award-winning, best-selling author/illustrator; a book that is promoting
literacy and poking fun at those people who are forever glued to their computer
screens.
I'm quite curious to see how this one will play out. Especially when IT'S
A BOOK starts showing up on a bunch of Best of the Year lists. Including
mine.
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks _http://richiespicks.com_ (http://richiespicks.com/)
author, I Second That Emotion: Sharing Children's and Young Adult Poetry
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
_http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/people/faculty/partingtonr/partingtonr.php_
(http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/people/faculty/partingtonr/partingtonr.php)
Moderator, _http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/_
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/)
Moderator _http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EcolIt/_
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EcolIt/)
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