Book review - The Book with No Pictures

I've always found it difficult to engage Mia by reading a book to her. Harry loves picture books and even though he can read pretty well by himself now he still loves being read to. But as much as I try Mia has never been that interested in books. Although she loves looking through them by herself, if I sit down to read to her she's usually bored after a couple of pages. Until we received this book - The Book With No Pictures (affiliate link).

I can honestly say that this is the first longer 'story' book that I've read to Mia and it has held her attention from beginning to end. Which is surprising, as it's not a typical picture book at all! We've read it over and over together and Harry has joined us too. He perhaps understands the humour a little better but they both really love it.

The Book with No Pictures is exactly what it says. Written by US actor and comedian B.J. Novak (familiar in this household from the US Office), the book has no pictures at all and is instead only text.

B.J. Novak shares how he was inspired to write the book:

‘When I was reading books to children the actor in me started to realize that there was something very funny about the whole experience. This kid was handing me a script: “Here are your lines tonight. Please perform for my enjoyment.” I thought the funniest thing in that situation would be for me to have to say things I don’t want to say—things that the kid is making me say. So it came from there. If the adult had to say silly things, I knew the kid would feel very powerful and would feel that books are very powerful. Working backwards, I realized that if there were no pictures, it would be an even more delightful trick: The kid is taking a grown-up style book and using it against the grown-up.’

Reading the book aloud to the children is a really fun experience for both adult and child. Each time I read it the children demanded it again, and Mia was even joining in with the parts that she remembered! I wish I could have managed to take a photo of their little faces as they listened in delight to me reading and having to say all sorts of silly things.

The Book with No Words The Book With No Pictures will be published on 4th December 2014, and if you are looking for something a bit different as a Christmas gift I'd really recommend it. It's definitely a welcome change from the usual themed offerings!

We received a copy of this book to review, Amazon links are affiliate.