The Incredible Book Eating Boy

Henry loved books. Specifically, he loved to eat them. The more he ate the tasty tomes, the smarter he got. Until the day, that is, that the knowledge he was ingesting began to become a little mixed, and he began to feel a little ill as a result of his unusual diet. Following the advice of parents, doctors and librarians, he stopped scarfing down books, but subsequently found life a bit dull and flat. What could he do...?

READ!!! (of course!) Although I saw the ending of The Incredible Book Eating Boy coming from a ways off, and fully expected to find in its pages a paean to the beauty and joy of reading, I still found the process of getting to the conclusion quite enjoyable. The story here is humorous and engaging, offering an oblique show more exploration of how we consume books and other media amidst all the hilarity. There's something to be said for taking our time when we read, rather than rushing to read everything we can, without pausing to truly mull it over. I appreciated that Jeffers managed to work that message into his book, without resorting to any overt didactic display. The illustrations were every bit as appealing as the story, making use of textual collage elements in ways that reminded me of the artist's work for his subsequent A Child of Books. Recommended to fellow Jeffers fans, and to anyone looking for children's stories that address how we approach books and knowledge. show less

I really enjoyed reading this book for many reasons. Like all of Jeffers' books, the illustrations are stunning and captivating. Jeffers' art has a major contribution to his books, drawing the reader into the story. One unique example of this is in the back of the book, where Jeffers chose to take a bite sized shape off of the corner of the book. I found this feature fun and interactive for readers of all ages. This book in particular has a unique story of a boy, Henry, eating books and gaining the knowledge from the books. I really enjoyed the plot of this book and the unique tone and mood set by Jeffers. There is a fairly serious tone making the plot seem realistic, the tone is also complimented by the monotone colors in the show more illustrations. I found the serious tone to be very interesting for the playful, fictional plot. One of the main bigger picture purposes of this book is to prove that there are no "easy ways" out of reading, as shown by Henry's eventual loss of knowledge. This book also shows an important maturation in Henry and his relationship with books. show less

The Incredible Book Eating Boy is a picture book about a young boy who loves to eat books and soon discovers that the more books he eats, the smarter he becomes. I enjoyed this book because of its unusual illustrations, simplistic language, and whimsical plot. The illustrations are dark, but full of color. They’re a mixture of sketches, textured backgrounds, colored pencils, and paint. They have depth and dimension and look like pages from different books that are pasted together. The language is minimalistic, but engaging. For example, “But here is the worst bit. Everything he was learning was getting mixed up… he didn’t have time to digest it properly. It became quite embarrassing for him to speak.” The plot follows the show more young boy as he discovers his vast and seemingly endless supply of knowledge by eating books. Eventually, things start to get a little jumbled up and he has to quit eating books. But what he discovers is that he can still become the smartest person on Earth, it’ll just take a little longer. The main message of this book is to encourage children to dream big and find their passion for reading. show less

Oliver Jeffers is one of my favorite author/illustrators! His illustrations are always so unique, but are consistent in everyone of his stories. That is one of the things that I love about his books. In this book, the illustrations are a little more complex and detail oriented than some of his other books, but you can still tell that it is his style of drawing. The drawings use simple shapes, like the boy or all of the books, and make it seem like an older child drew the pictures. The illustrations are once again, not intimidating but interesting for children.

Another thing that I loved about this book was the story line. The main character in the story is eating all of these books to get smarter. There are a few expressions that show more talking about eating up all of the information or knowledge that you can get. This takes a literal spin to that. Usually, that expression just means that you read books a lot to learn all of the information. In this book, it means you eat the books so that the information just goes straight to your head. It is comical and really enjoyable to read.

The message of the book is that you should learn to love reading because you can learn so much from books! In the real world, you cannot eat the books to retain all of the information from them. You actually have to sit down, read the words on every page, and process that information in your brain to understand it all. It teaches the children that if you want to be smart, start reading! That is a great message that many children need to learn! show less

I liked "The Incredible Book Eating Boy" written and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers. I like Jeffer's use of mixed media including the bite mark in the back of the book emphasizing the young boys voracious hunger for books. I really enjoyed the way he inserted the text on top of the book as the boy carries them through the library which again emphasized how quickly the boy was eating books. The story itself was cleverly written and I especially enjoyed how Henry became smarter until information he was taking in became jumbled and he soon became unable to answer any question at all. The theme of this book is the importance of reading and how their is no quick way to become the smartest person on Earth, which takes time and effort.

Summary: Henry loved books. But not like you and I love books, no....not quite. He actually loved books so much that he would eat them. It all started with a single word. Word, after word became sentence after sentence until he was able to eat a whole book. He ate many different kinds of books and when he ate these books he would become smarter with the knowledge of inside the book. He ate so many not all could digest and information from the books was getting all discombobulated in his head. He gave up eating the book and decided to use it for its natural purpose and so he read it. And enjoyed the book more for the read now.

Personal Reaction: Funny book! Great book! This is a book that I was curious to know the ending and before I show more knew it, it was over and wanted more! I do not like to read much but for a kid who does not like to read either should read this book.

Classroom Extension: A show and trade. Have a show and tell of the kids favorite book and have the kids trade with another students favorite book. show less

What a horrible book title! The narrative happily trots along, not rushing, not stretching, just telling the story as entertainingly as possible in an awesome layout. The fantastic illustrations in this book are collages. Every page bursts with books! One page is made up of lined note paper. Another a census. Another an atlas, a math book, recycled paper and a dictionary.