Skip to main content

This Book is Not for You!

 


Written by Shannon Hale
Illustrated by Tracy Subisak
Dial Books for Young Readers, 2022. Picture Book.

This is a picture book by a favorite Utah author, Shannon Hale. She has also written The Goose Girl, The Princess Academy, and the graphic novel Real Friends Series. 

Stanley rides his bike to the bookmobile and he's surprised to find that Ms. Christine, the regular bookmobile lady, is on vacation. Her replacement is an old man with big, bushy eyebrows. Stanley wants to check out The Mysterious Sandwich. He's surprised when the old man won't let him check the book out because it is a "girl book." Stanley is frustrated when the old man lets Valeria check out The Mysterious Sandwich because she's a girl. Stanley is also interested in a book about cats or robots, but the old man will only let cats check out books about cats and robots check out book about robots! Everyone is surprised when an Allosaurus shows up demanding to read a book about ponies. 

This Book is Not for You! is so fun to read with relatable characters and speech bubbles. It is empowering and makes you feel like you have a choice in what you read. This book lets you know that boys can totally read 'girl books' (and vice versa). The illustrations are done in a mixed medium using ink, watercolors, pastel and colored pencils, and the result is delightful! If you're a book lover of books about book lovers, (and even if you're not) then this is for you!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Alice with a Why

Alice with a Why By Anna James New York: Penguin, 2026. Fiction. 240 pgs. In 1919, in the aftermath of the first World War, Alyce is living with her grandmother in the English countryside. Her grandmother, also named Alice, tells Alyce (with a y) stories from her childhood adventures in a wonderful land filled with white rabbits and mad hatters. Alyce doesn't really believe the silly stories, she just misses her father who was killed in the war. One day, Alyce receives a mysterious invitation to tea, and subsequently falls into a pond where she is transported to Wonderland. Her grandmother, of course, is that Alice. Alyce is prompted by the Mad Hatter, Dormouse, and March Hare to seek out the Time Being and put an end to the war between the Sun King and the Queen of the Moon. Thus begins Alyce's adventure through Wonderland. I have a certain soft spot for the original story of Alice in Wonderland. It is one of my particular favorites and I often have a hard time reading new int...

Review: A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall

A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall By Jasmine Warga New York: Harper, 2024. Fiction. 211 pages. A painting has been stolen from the Penelope L. Brooks Museum and sixth-grader Rami Ahmed is worried he's the main suspect. His mother works at the museum as the lead custodian and Rami spends a lot of time hanging out at the museum while she works. On the day the painting went missing, the only people there were the security guard Ed, the cleaning crew, and Rami. Then, a mysterious girl appears in the museum. She floats around from room to room and only Rami can see her -- and she looks exactly like the girl from the missing painting. To prove his innocence and help figure out who the floating girl is, Rami partners up with an aspiring sleuth at school named Veda and the two dive into unexpected situations as they try to solve the mystery. This is a cozy mystery that is focused mostly on characters and ambiance and only a little on the mystery itself. Don't read this book if yo...

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...