Tag Archives: olivier tallec

 

I love a book about a book or story or language or reading, don’t you? It’s like a cupcake with extra frosting for bibliophiles. It affirms the things we like while indulging in them.

These two are a perfect pair for that.

 

A Book Is a Book by Jenny Bornholdt, illustrated by Sarah Wilkins (2013).

I love this one so much. I just reread it and laughed aloud alone in my apartment several times.

Click image(s) to enlarge

“A book is to read” the first spread tells us. Yup and yes. But a book is more than that too in this whimsical take on the written word and story that’s clearly had input from the real things kids say.

Some favorites:

“Reading a book of pictures is still reading.” Word.

“Reading books in bed is great, but not really heavy ones.” True.

 

“It is impossible to read in the shower.”

“How a book smells depends on what it’s been through.”

This book will charm the pages off you, book lovers!

And we must see more of Sarah Wilkins’s wonderful artwork! We must!

 

Thanks to Myrick Marketing for images!

 

 

 

This Is a Poem That Heals Fish by Jean-Pierre Siméon and Olivier Tallec (2007).

This book is mind-bending and I mean that as the highest praise. (Get ready for animals and objects who talk like it’s old hat.)

Here’s how it goes. A boy named Arthur has a fish named Leon who looks like he’s sick and going to die. Arthur’s mother’s solution is to give the fish a poem to revive it. Of course! A poem!

“But what is a poem?”

That’s what Arthur wants to know. And that’s what this book is about. It’s a story about poetry and it’s poetry itself.

 

When household appliances can’t answer Arthur’s question, he asks other people. They give the most baffling, beautiful answers. They speak of what poetry is to them.

 

“A poem, Arthur, is when you are in love and have the sky in your mouth.”

“A poem is when you hear the heartbeat of a stone.”

Aren’t those descriptions just gorgeous? And resonant?

And Tallec‘s illustrations so expressive.

 

Our main character Arthur is perplexed by the stuff people say about a poem. But he listens. He collects that stuff.

He tells that stuff to Leon.

And that stuff is a poem. A poem that heals his fish.

Poetry is pretty powerful stuff.

 

Thanks to Enchanted Lion Books for images!

 

 

MORE PICTURE BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS:

The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers (2007).

Books Always Everywhere by Jane Blatt, illustrated by Sarah Massini (2013).

My Pet Book by Bob Staake (2014).

 

It’s a Book by Lane Smith (2010).

and

 

I Am the Book by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by Yayo (2011).

I Like Books by Anthony Browne (1988).

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce (2011).

 

 

Got more books about books or reading or poetry? Lemme know!

 

 

 I received a review copy of A Book is A Book from Gecko Press; opinions are my own.