Don't Book Me! I Hate to Read! by Rita Marshall

VICTOR DICKENS WAS A GOOD KID.

HE TOOK A HELMET WITH HIM WHEN HE SKATEBOARDED. HE COMBED HIS HAIR FOR SCHOOL PICTURES. HE ALWAYS SHARED WITH HIS DOG.

YES, VICTOR DICKENS WAS A GOOD KID. BUT VICTOR HATED TO READ.

HE GOT As IN MATH, BUT HE GOT Fs IN THE ABCs.

For a guy who shares the surname of a famous novelist, Victor Dickens is a maverick bibliophobic!

The best he can muster is to pretend to read long enough to qualify for TV time. But then, sitting there in front of an open book, something strange happens.

A CROCODILE IN A WHITE COAT CLIMBED OUT OF THE BOOK.

"JUMP INTO MY POCKET IF YOU LIKE TO READ. IT'S STORY TIME."

"I HATE TO READ!" SAID VICTOR.

But then a little mouse gnaws his way out of the book, followed by a parrot with a treasure map. A rabbit in big black boots appears and they all invite Victor to come along on an adventurous voyage to the Spice Islands. A frog brandishing a sword urges Victor to read the page so the frog can turn back into a prince.

"I HATE ADVENTURES," SAID VICTOR.

But can Victor resist finding out what happens next? After all, anything can happen in a fiction book, and Victor is in for some surprises in Rita Marshall's new edition of her I Hate To Read! (Creative Editions, 2013). Swiss artist Etienne Delessert's elaborate and fanciful illustrations take this fanciful story over the finish line. As Publishers Weekly puts it, "Delessert's inventive art... wreaks playful havoc with perspective and scale, and features striking, earth-tone pastels punctuated with splashes of vibrant color."

Pair this one with Marshall's sequel, I Still Hate to Read! or Barbara Bottner's hilarious reading avoidance tale, Miss Brooks Loves Books (And I Don't) (see my review here.