No Buddy Like a Book
by Allan Wolf (Author) Brianne Farley (Illustrator)
Calling readers and daydreamers, word mavens and lovers of adventure! This celebration of the power of books is a rallying cry for letting imaginations soar.
We learn important stuff from books. We learn to speak and think. We learn why icebergs stay afloat . . .and why Titanics sink. Have you ever wanted to climb to the top of Everest with one hand behind your back? Kiss a crocodile all by yourself on the Nile River? How about learning how to bottle moonlight, or track a distant star?
There are endless things to discover and whole universes to explore simply by reading a book. But books are only smears of ink without the reader's mind to give their letters meaning and bring them to life. With a rollicking, rhyming text and delightful artwork, poet and storyteller Allan Wolf and illustrator Brianne Farley remind us that books, no matter how they may be consumed, give readers of every background an opportunity to expand their world and spark their imagination.
With infectious enthusiasm, No Buddy Like a Book offers an ode to the wonders of language--written, spoken, and everything in between.
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Kirkus Reviews
Publishers Weekly
In this snappy addition to the shelf of book-extolling books, Wolf (The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep) supplies a string of examples showing how books can teach and enlighten. An unnamed narrator vacillates between offering cheery advice ("So step aboard the Book Express./ It's waiting at the station") and divulging things learned in volumes read ("We learn why icebergs stay afloat.../ and why Titanics sink"). A group of children of various ethnicities, including a brown-skinned child with low sight, make a series of book-led discoveries. Two of the gang sail off in a balloon to a celestial city of domed towers as others build a rocket booster and make a pinhole camera, which Farley (Dozens of Doughnuts) draws in enough detail for readers to try making themselves. Others explore the globe ("I've anteloped in Africa/ and kissed a crocodile/ as I was sailing all alone/ along the river Nile") and encounter spectacular bird specimens in a museum. Though colonialist-explorer elements sound dated, Wolf's playful tone keeps the loosely associated episodes powering forward. Sturdy, stubby-nosed characters by Farley, meanwhile, beguile, and fantasy landscapes divert, including a wondrous spread that reimagines the constellations. Ages 4-8. (Feb.)
Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.Review quotes
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) In this snappy addition to the shelf of book-extolling books, Wolf (The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep) supplies a string of examples showing how books can teach and enlighten...Wolf's playful tone keeps the loosely associated episodes powering forward. Sturdy, stubby-nosed characters by Farley, meanwhile, beguile, and fantasy landscapes divert, including a wondrous spread that reimagines the constellations.
—Publishers Weekly Featured in a roundup of "5 New Titles to Pick Up Now,"
—Parents Magazine
JUV051000 - Juvenile Fiction | Imagination & Play
JUV070000 - Juvenile Fiction | Poetry (see also Stories in Verse)
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