I DO NOT LIKE BOOKS ANYMORE! by Daisy Hirst

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I DO NOT LIKE BOOKS ANYMORE! 
by Daisy Hirst
Review Copy from Candlewick Books
Words cannot convey just how much I love I DO NOT LIKE BOOKS ANYMORE! It is the best picture book representation of the process of learning to read I have ever seen - in 25 years of reading picture books out loud to audiences and 11 years of reviewing picture books. Actually, every picture book from Daisy Hirst is the perfect combination of authentic kid emotions and experiences, humor and thoughtfulness.
Natalie and Alphonse "really liked books and stories." They love being read to, remembering stories and making them up and Natalie is very excited about the prospect of learning to read. However, when she opens her first reading book, "the letters and words looked like prickles or birds' feet." Not only is Natalie taken aback by the practice she'll have to put in to learn how to read, she's not to thrilled with her first reading book, asking Miss Bimble, the librarian, "But it isn't a story?" Natalie practices and her parents encourage and support her, but she still cannot read...
Natalie decides she doesn't need to learn how to read. After all, she can make up her own stories and tell them to her little brother. Hirst includes their charming first co-authored story, which they decide to draw pictures for so that they can tell it again, in I DO NOT LIKE BOOKS ANYMORE! After they draw the pictures, they decide to get Dad to add their words to the page and give it a good stapling. And, when Alphonse asks her to tell the story to him again, "Natalie found that, mostly, she could read the book they'd written (with Alphonse helping.)" 
I get teary every time I read this book. And, you will want to read this book over and over, as Hirst has tucked wonderful little details throughout her illustrations. Keep your eye out for real books and a familiar looking caterpillar who ends up in Natalie and Alphonse's story, not to mention endpapers that tell a story of their own!

 More amazing books by Daisy Hirst!
The Girl with the Parrot On Her Head

Alphonse, That Is Not Ok to Do!

Hilda and the Runaway Baby

 And coming soon....





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