REVIEW: The Incredible Book Eating Boy

Jeffers, O.  (2006).  The Incredible Book Eating Boy.  New York:  Philomel Books.

9780399247491

This book gives a new meaning to devouring a book.  Henry starts slow, tasting a word, then a sentence, a book and then many books.  As he eats book after book, sometimes several books at a time, he begins to have dreams of becoming the smartest person on Earth.  A dream he may have to set aside, when his stomach becomes upset from too many books.

With different fonts, illustration styles and even a bite taken out of the bottom corner, the appearance of each page and the book as a whole is half the fun of reading this book.

This is an excellent book with a fun twist to show the power and enjoyment of reading.

Activities:

While this book could be used as a read aloud, since the details, images and book pages incorporated into the background of this book, it may be better as a one-on-one read so that a child can take time with the illustrations.

While I wouldn't recommend encouraging students to eat paper or book pages after reading this book, a teacher could still bring in candy that is rapped in edible paper, maybe even have students write a favorite word or wish on the paper before they eat them.  Just a thought.

Quotes of Note:

"Henry loved books.  But not like you and I love books, no.  Not quite...Henry loved to EAT books."

"He wasn't sure at first, and tried eating a single world, just to test.  Next, he tried a whole sentence and then the whole page."

"But here is the best bit:  The more he ate, the smarter he got."