How To Read A Book written by poet and Newbery Medalist Kwame Alexander and illustrated by Caldecott Honoree Melissa Sweet is an unusual book that looks not at how good reading is for you but rather at how good reading feels. It’s about getting comfortable with a book, pulling back that cover and letting the words grab you, charm you and make you feel. As the author says, “Don’t rush though: Your eyes need time to taste. Your soul needs room to bloom.”
Right in the middle of this glorious adventure there is a surprise book party that beckons the reader to taste words and feelings. An attractive four-page fold-out moves the sensory experiences along as neon colors in hot pink, orange and yellow energize the action. The author and the illustrator create a beautiful dance of feelings.
Melissa Sweet’s illustrations are fascinating collages rendered in watercolor, gouache, mixed media, and pages from old books. Bits and pieces from a copy of the children’s classic Bambi can be seen throughout as letters from the alphabet turn somersaults and children read while hanging upside down from a limb of a tree. There is no end to the possibilities when walking hand in hand with the imagination.
In his notes at the back of the book author Kwame Alexander says the book is really his effort to capture how a person feels when “they crack open a book, get lost in the pages, and wander through the wonder.”
HOW TO READ A BOOK written by poet Kwame Alexander and illustrated by artist Melissa Sweet is a beautiful look at how reading feels for children 4-8 years of age (Harper/ an imprint of Harper Collins, 2019).
The Children’s Bookshelf is a production of WCMU. A link to the podcast and activity questions can be found at Children’s Bookshelf dot org.
Questions and activities for How To Read A Book
The children in this book have special places to enjoy reading such as a big comfortable chair, in a tree or stretched out on the grass under a tent made out of a huge book. Do you have a favorite place to enjoy the magic of reading? Think about it. See it in your mind’s eye. If it has a scent that you can smell or a texture you can touch, smell it and feel it. Now draw a picture of your special reading spot with you in it.
The illustrator of this book used a collage technique with which to visually design the pages. Have you ever created a picture by cutting out shapes and pasting them on a page, arranging bits and pieces of string, ribbon, paper, flowers and sticks on the page? Take a look back through the book. Study the illustrations. Which pictures appeal to you the most and why?
One of the illustrator’s favorite books is Bambi. Parts of that story appear in her illustrations. What is one of your favorite books? Next, think of five key descriptions of events from that book and draw a symbol or picture that stands for each of them. Now, color your pictures, cut them out and paste them on a poster board to celebrate your favorite book and how the words make you feel.