Leanne Franson

Although both of her parents were voracious readers, filling their house with books - stacked on shelves and tables, piled on the floor, stuck in odd places like the refrigerator, or inside dresser drawers - young Meena hated books, and read them as little as possible. To her they were just annoyingly common objects, always in the way, always liable (as they had done when they came tumbling down on her cat, Max) to cause a problem. Then one day, after rescuing Max from his perch on top of a show more tower of books, and winding up in a jumble of fallen volumes and dislodged characters - themselves fallen out of their respective titles - she discovers that she must read each story, in order to determine where the lost characters belong...

Meena's discovery that reading is immensely pleasurable, and that books are friends that can be visited and revisited again, makes for an engaging story, even if the ending feels like a foregone conclusion. As someone who has taken to stacking excess books at the back of my closet, because my shelves are filled to capacity, I identified strongly with the household depicted here, and (of course!) liked Manjusha Pawagi's message about the joys of reading! The accompanying illustrations by Leanne Franson are full of fun, showing rooms bursting with books (or characters from books, as the case may be). All in all The Girl Who Hated Books, while not the most outstanding picture-book I have picked up of late, is a solidly engaging title, one I would recommend to reluctant young readers, or to the adults in the lives who are anxious to strike that spark of bibliophilia in them. show less

recommended by: Miriam

recommended for: kids who love or hate books, especially those who have parents who love books

I laughed so hard I cried.

The overflowing books in Meena’s house were just too close to home. So funny! This is a fantastic book for those whose homes are overflowing with books. I have such a place now, and my childhood home (especially until a friend of my parents built them a large bookcase) was similarly book filled.

I loved Meena’s cat Max. This is a good book for cat show more lovers also.

While it’s not a novel concept, I do like how this book shows kids all the joys that are in the pages of books. Books are not “just full of words.” The crying wolf was hysterical, and so different from the depiction of wolves as evil, and I almost choked with laughter when the rabbit mistakenly almost got put in the cookbook.

This is a fun book and I think it’s great for all kids, whether or not they generally love books.

My edition was a bilingual Tamil-English book.

And, the story tickled my fancy so much I almost forgot to mention that I also really enjoyed the illustrations. It is a picture book so that is important to know. show less

This is a story about a girl who simply hated to read books. Then she discovers that she is trapped in an imaginary world and in order to get out of that world, she has to read a book. It's a great story that is easy to follow and funny to children that are struggling to read books. I recommend it as it made me laugh because reading was never my favorite thing to do as kid. This book is an example of modern fantasy.

Hm. I'd hate books too if I had to move them out of the way just to get my cereal. And aren't children who hate to read told already that books are full of interesting characters? This is a neat take on the theme, but I can't say it thrilled me, sorry. It was better than the book [b:The Pagemaster|763506|The Pagemaster|David Kirschner|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1223636096s/763506.jpg|749591] at least, though, so let's say 3.5 stars.