Published: 19 September 2023
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Illustrator: Mike Lowery
Pages: 40
Format: Picture Book
★ ★ ★ – 3.5 Stars
Nobody in the world actually enjoys reading aloud, do they? Impossible! After all, any number of terrible things could happen: you might come across a word you don’t know how to pronounce. Or get distracted by a volcano eruption and lose your place. Even worse, you might accidentally hear the sound of your own voice!
With a nice plaque on the first page telling us this book is meant to be read aloud it then begins the story of someone who emphatically will not read it out loud.
In a meta kind of ‘this is not the song this is just a tribute’ you don’t know what the book is the narrator doesn’t want to read aloud, but the story we do get is enjoyable and clever. Their pontifications and protestations are great and I loved how the text and formatting worked together to help exaggerate the woes of our narrator.
Obviously, if you do choose to read this aloud it is super fun. The creative format and fonts let you play with pronunciation and emphasis, and the interaction between the narrator and the literal elephant in the room is a great way to have a conversation without it being to the reader directly.
The illustrations and the layout is bright and colourful, there are a lot of busy pages that are reminiscent of a kid illustrating the various issues they have and it matches the voice perfectly. It’s easy to picture someone standing before you proclaiming how they will not read this book aloud and the various reasons why.
For those who may be wary or unsure about reading aloud this is a great book to help quell any fears. As our narrator works through their issues (both serious and humorous) it shows that reading out loud can be fun and not as intimidating as it first appears.
You can purchase I Don’t Want to Read this Book Aloud via the following
Wordery | Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson
Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible
