Just Read by Lori Degman and Victoria Tentler-Krylov - Children's Day #3

Just Read by Lori Degman and Victoria Tentler-Krylov is a tale of people of all ages reading anywhere and everywhere. Wildly imaginative illustrations show people reading from paper books and electronic devices (audio books are also mentioned). One child reads braille while another tells a story to a smaller child using sign language. Two children read dots and dashes drawn in the fog on a window (Morse Code, I presume). The places people are shown or described reading are as broad as the types of reading material: in a car or on a train, in a pile of raked leaves, while grocery shopping, on a playground, beneath a tree, in a treehouse (my favorite illustration, by far) -- even in a music store.

Some of the illustrations show places to read, some show what the reader is imagining. In one illustration, a child is reading a book with a person holding an umbrella on the cover. She glances outside, through an airplane window, and "sees" (read: imagines) people floating in the rain with air in their umbrellas like latter-day Mary Poppinses.

Recommended - A great book to encourage future readers or beginning readers. I love the diversity of places shown, types of reading matter, and even the cast of characters created to encourage children of all stripes to read anywhere. A note on the illustrations: I found that the busy-ness of the illustrations overwhelmed me a tiny bit, but once I became accustomed to them, I liked the fact that there was so much to look at. Just Read is a good book, then, for children who enjoy looking at illustrations that have a lot going on, especially before they're old enough to actually read. My children spent a lot of time flopped on their bellies, looking at illustrations and often reciting memorized text before they were old enough to read. They would have loved Just Read.

I received a copy of Just Read from Sterling Children's Books for review. Thank you! More reviews forthcoming!

©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.