I admire Shannon Hale for advocating for boys to read books starring female characters. I think this story got a little muddled trying to be funny, but overall I liked it. ( )

Family Picture Book Read-Aloud Afternoon: A Nine-Book Pile!

I was expecting a book about straight-up censorship, but it's a strange fantasy about a sexist old man running a bookmobile who acts as a gatekeeper and tries to steer the children, robots, and animals who come looking for books toward ones he thinks would suit them, i.e., girls should read books with girl protagonists. It was too strange and silly for me, especially when an allosaurus showed up.

Muddled message. Blah execution. ( )

anyone can read any book!
retro illustrations are great ( )

When I was a girl I actually rarely liked books about boys but I’m glad I got to choose which books to read. This is a wonderful book about letting children read books that they find appealing. It’s a fun story and some of it is very amusing. I chuckled out loud a couple of times. Sweet and with a good message that isn’t too, too overpowering because of the engaging way the story is told.

I love the illustrations. They tell the story well and they’re beautiful to view. I enjoy the art style and the way color is used. I think the cover illustration is less appealing than any of the pictures in the book. I enjoyed the ones inside more than I thought I would.

I love this book. Gift worthy book and would make a great read aloud for families and classrooms. I would like to see this in every school library.

I would like every children’s librarian and every parent to read it.

ETA: Goodreads still won't let us post links in our comments but I was told they now let us post them in our reviews. I gave up trying a while back but now I'm trying again because this is a good interview that directly relates to this book: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article... ( )