Read It, Don’t Eat It!
by Ian Schoenherr
Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins), 2009. 32 pages.
Ah, at last! With this simple book, I’ve found a delightful and fun way to talk with preschool kids on library tours how to treat books in the library. This book will be perfect! It gives the message in a quick and entertaining way.
The message is simple: Treat books nicely. For example:
“Don’t overdue it,
just renew it.
(Really, now, there’s nothing to it.)
Leave no trace
(or at least erase).
Don’t censor, delete, or deface.
It’s not a platter, or a stool.
Be careful with it at the pool.”
Of course, with the words alone, it wouldn’t be such a gem. The pictures make the book, with fuzzy round big-eyed animals doing outrageous things to library books, and one bear in particular trying to help them stop.
Kids seeing the book will definitely want to side with the nice bear and, like him, take to heart the message at the end:
“Share with a friend, a sister, a brother.
Now go out and get another.”
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/read_it_dont_eat_it.html