Title: It’s a Book about reading a book
Genre: This book (Smith, 2010) was categorized as a book about reading, and while it certainly is that ultimately the reading is simply a vehicle for the humor of the book, as well as the ending punchline.
Book Summary: Monkey is reading, Jackass is confused by how books work as opposed to his tablet, there is a big back and forth, and by the end Jackass is reading and Monkey is going back to the library for another book.
Impressions: The book is fairly simple on the surface, including the plot and dialogue, but is very satisfyingly complex in the artwork, despite the style being, again, simple on the surface. With little more than a couple lines and a black circle for an eye Smith very effectively conveys Monkey’s annoyed and exasperated feelings towards Jackass’ confusion. This is true across the whole book and all of the characters, the expressions really sell the story more than the sparse dialogue does. I also quite fully disagree with the professional review (included below in part) that the book is meant for adults but disguised as a story for children, because of the ‘adult’ humor of Jackass’ name and the reversed unfamiliarity – adults are more likely to have a confusion about how modern tech works than a book, after all – but my impressions of the book make me think that the absurdity of the technologically native Jackass being confounded by a much older technology is intentional. To wit – how many children of the current generation end up having to show their parents or grandparents how some bit of technology works? This isn’t even a new phenomenon, I distinctly remember jokes about the kids of my generation having to show the parents how to program the VCR, and later how to use the first computers. I still remember trying to teach my real estate broker Grandmother how to use a mouse as more and more of that business started going to computers in the late '80s. (I failed, mostly because at 70+ my grandmother did not think it dignified to play a video game as a way to learn how the mouse worked) By reversing it and amplifying the absurdity of the situation it makes it funny for the children reading, and might even help them understand a bit of what their parents are going through when it happens. If I am right the finishing punchline then becomes a parental bonus rather than the whole point of the book – because for the more literal children how is it funny that they say his name again, when it was said at the beginning – and for the children the punchline is simply that he still doesn’t get it.
Library Uses: I do actually know librarians and teachers who have used the book in storytimes – some modifying the last work to ‘Jack’ and some leaving it the same. I also think the book would be great to use as a way of promoting other books – I would have the library’s marketing department make up a big blowup of Monkey holding the book, and then swap in pictures of different books that are being promoted.
Readalikes: At its core It’s a Book is a snarky humor book about books, and there are a lot of other similar books, both with or without the more adult humor. The two I would recommend are There’s a Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone and We Are in a Book! by Mo Willems. Both play around with the nature of books wonderfully, the first by subverting expectations of what happens in a book (the monster at the end is Grover, who has been panicking the whole book about getting to the end of the book) and the other even has the characters flip ahead to find out when the book is going to end.
The third book I’d recommend as a readalike isn’t quite as close, but the feel of it is similar. Kiss Me! I’m a Prince by Heather McLeod takes the common story of the Frog Prince and then twists it around because the girl, something of a tomboy, would rather have a talking frog than become a princess.
References
Bird, E. (2010). Review of the Day: It’s a Book by Lane Smith. [Review of the book It’s a Book]. School Library Journal. Retrieved from http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2010/11/24/review-of-the-day-its-a-book-by-lane-smith/#_
Smith, L. (2010). It’s a Book. New York, NY: Roaring Brook Press.
Genre: This book (Smith, 2010) was categorized as a book about reading, and while it certainly is that ultimately the reading is simply a vehicle for the humor of the book, as well as the ending punchline.
Book Summary: Monkey is reading, Jackass is confused by how books work as opposed to his tablet, there is a big back and forth, and by the end Jackass is reading and Monkey is going back to the library for another book.
Impressions: The book is fairly simple on the surface, including the plot and dialogue, but is very satisfyingly complex in the artwork, despite the style being, again, simple on the surface. With little more than a couple lines and a black circle for an eye Smith very effectively conveys Monkey’s annoyed and exasperated feelings towards Jackass’ confusion. This is true across the whole book and all of the characters, the expressions really sell the story more than the sparse dialogue does. I also quite fully disagree with the professional review (included below in part) that the book is meant for adults but disguised as a story for children, because of the ‘adult’ humor of Jackass’ name and the reversed unfamiliarity – adults are more likely to have a confusion about how modern tech works than a book, after all – but my impressions of the book make me think that the absurdity of the technologically native Jackass being confounded by a much older technology is intentional. To wit – how many children of the current generation end up having to show their parents or grandparents how some bit of technology works? This isn’t even a new phenomenon, I distinctly remember jokes about the kids of my generation having to show the parents how to program the VCR, and later how to use the first computers. I still remember trying to teach my real estate broker Grandmother how to use a mouse as more and more of that business started going to computers in the late '80s. (I failed, mostly because at 70+ my grandmother did not think it dignified to play a video game as a way to learn how the mouse worked) By reversing it and amplifying the absurdity of the situation it makes it funny for the children reading, and might even help them understand a bit of what their parents are going through when it happens. If I am right the finishing punchline then becomes a parental bonus rather than the whole point of the book – because for the more literal children how is it funny that they say his name again, when it was said at the beginning – and for the children the punchline is simply that he still doesn’t get it.
Professional Review: The following excerpts (that I disagree with) come from the School Library Journal’s review of the book (Bird, 2010). (One comment, I find it interesting the reviewer gets caught up on the distinction between monkey/ape, but somehow thinks that Monkey’s dress shirt is a muumuu.)
Where to begin? Begin at the beguine, I suppose. I’ve had It’s a Book sitting on my shelf for months and now the time is ripe. As you may have heard one place or another, it contains an off-color word at the end (“jackass”, belated spoiler alert) and it makes fun of folks who prefer online zips and whizbangs to good old-fashioned paper books. So what are we to make of it? Well, I hate to lob this designation on any author or illustrator I like, but this is so clearly a picture book for grown-ups that it squeaks. While kids today slip from electronic readers to paper books and back again like svelte otters, it is the grown-ups around them that are heard cooing and purring every time a shiny new electronic toy hits the market. For those who love the printed page, such enthusiasm can be scary. Kids don’t fear for the so-called “death of the book” but some of their caregivers certainly do, and so for them Lane Smith has penned an exchange between a pixel-happy donkey and the monkey (slash ape) who just wants to read his book in peace.
Hedging his bets right from the start, Smith begins by pulling his punch as far back as it can reasonably go. Turn to the title page and you read, “It’s a mouse. It’s a jackass. It’s a monkey.” Ignoring the fact that the monkey is actually an ape (though he may be hiding his tail beneath his, uh, muumuu?), the story begins with the donkey asking the primate what he’s got there. “It’s a book.” Not understanding the donkey tries to figure out the use of such an object. “Can it text?” “No.” “Tweet?” “No.” “Wi-Fi?” “No.” Eventually the donkey gets to see what a book really can do and when his companion asks if he can have his book back he gets a pretty straightforward, “No,” echoing his own earlier dismissals. The donkey, to his credit, offers to charge the book up when he’s done, but the mouse perched on the top of the monkey’s (slash ape’s) head clarifies everything, “You don’t have to . . .” Turn the page. “It’s a book, jackass.”
can’t help but be amused by the irony that a book that proclaims loud and long the great delights of the printed word verses the electronic one happens to have its own online book trailer (one that judiciously makes sure not to mention the naughty word at the end, by the way). In essence, the book has done precisely what it meant to. It has amused adults to no end. And while it will probably never be read to a class of first or second graders in a true storytime, it will live on in the bookshelves of college students across the country. While it does, I’ll hope for the return of Lane Smith to the world of children’s literature written for kids first and foremost. Writing for adults is all well and good, but anyone can do that. It takes a special knack to write a book that a kid really loves and enjoys. Fingers crossed that it happens for Mr. Smith again sometime real soon.
Library Uses: I do actually know librarians and teachers who have used the book in storytimes – some modifying the last work to ‘Jack’ and some leaving it the same. I also think the book would be great to use as a way of promoting other books – I would have the library’s marketing department make up a big blowup of Monkey holding the book, and then swap in pictures of different books that are being promoted.
Readalikes: At its core It’s a Book is a snarky humor book about books, and there are a lot of other similar books, both with or without the more adult humor. The two I would recommend are There’s a Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone and We Are in a Book! by Mo Willems. Both play around with the nature of books wonderfully, the first by subverting expectations of what happens in a book (the monster at the end is Grover, who has been panicking the whole book about getting to the end of the book) and the other even has the characters flip ahead to find out when the book is going to end.
The third book I’d recommend as a readalike isn’t quite as close, but the feel of it is similar. Kiss Me! I’m a Prince by Heather McLeod takes the common story of the Frog Prince and then twists it around because the girl, something of a tomboy, would rather have a talking frog than become a princess.
References
Bird, E. (2010). Review of the Day: It’s a Book by Lane Smith. [Review of the book It’s a Book]. School Library Journal. Retrieved from http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2010/11/24/review-of-the-day-its-a-book-by-lane-smith/#_
Smith, L. (2010). It’s a Book. New York, NY: Roaring Brook Press.
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