The Hole Book

I learned of this book in a course I'm taking on the history of books. This book tells the story of a boy playing with a gun that he doesn't know is loaded, and when it goes off, it leaves a hole clean through the book. The holes in the pages are incorporated into the artwork and help tell the story. It's a very cute idea, and even though I read a digitized version online (and there are no bullet-holes in my computer screen, thank goodness) I still "got" the humor of the interactive novelty pages. I was a bit caught off guard by the manner in which it depicted a racial minority, which sadly marks this book as a product of its time, even as the format itself was so revolutionary. Also, cat-lovers beware! This is a comedy about a bullet show more that wreaks havoc in humorous, nonfatal ways, and halfway through, a cat gets shot. show less

http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/the-hole-book-1908/

Long, for a picture-book. The rhymes would make it helpful for early readers and maybe (adult) ESL students. Violent, with the good rewarded and the bad punished. Racist, and not just to "Mammy" and the watermelon, but to the German drummer, the Russian balloon seller, etc. If you have any interest in the history of children's lit, enjoy. But don't just hand it to your kids without context.