The Bored Book - Hardcover

David Michael Slater

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1897476191 ISBN 13: 9781897476192

Publisher: Simply Read Books, 2009

Synopsis

A brother and sister are bored and irritated visiting their grandfather. There's no TV, no video games or computers — only books! Sent by their grandfather into the attic, they discover a dusty volume that is unlike all the others. When they open it, it expands into a giant map. As the map grows larger and larger, filling the attic, the children fall into adventures that take them all over the world, face to face with sharks, pirates, knights, even an abominable snowman. Suddenly their visit is anything but boring! The Bored Book uses stunning illustrations, with no text, to remind youngsters of the unique adventures to be found in books.

About this title

About the Author

David Michael Slater is an acclaimed author of over 20 books for children, teens, and adults.  He teaches middle school English in Reno, Nevada, where he lives with his wife and son. You can can learn more at davidmichaelslater.com.

Doug Keith has worked on a wide range of projects including more than forty illustrated books, a series of popular alphabet posters and numerous fine art commissions. Doug's honors include an Emmy Award for graphic design, an Award of Excellence from the Society of Newspaper Design and several Publishers Marketing Association (Ben Franklin) Awards for picture book illustration.

Reviews

Grade 1–4—It's difficult to determine the audience for this wordless picture book, which is a watered-down version of Todd Strasser's The Pagemaster (Scholastic, 1994). Opening black-and-white sketches show a brother and sister fighting while a grandfatherly man is trying to read in a room lined with bookshelves. Tired of their squabbling, he pulls aside a bookcase to reveal a hidden staircase. Climbing it, the children find themselves in an attic full of cobweb-covered tomes and pick up The Bored Book. As they open it, color floods from the pages, lighting up their astonished faces. The pages fold out to a huge mural that takes up the entire room and depicts many unrelated scenes. The siblings get sucked into one picture and find themselves on an icy slope facing what may be the Abominable Snowman, and in another, they confront pirates. After many adventures, they return to the old man in the dusty attic (now drawn in full color) and show him the mysterious volume. He calmly shows them shelves of titles such as Treasure Island and Sinbad. The children choose a book and are seen happily reading from it together. Keith's illustrations are too frightening for young audiences, but children who are old enough to read Treasure Island will not be engaged by a series of drawings about terrified kids running away from what the book flap calls "the adventure of a lifetime."—Martha Simpson, Stratford Library Association, CT END

Edition details

• Publisher: Simply Read Books
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1897476191
• ISBN 13: 9781897476192
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Doug Keith
• Number of pages: 32