Books! by Murray McCain designed and illustrated by John Alcorn

This quirky little book was originally published in 1961 and it might almost be the oldest book in our library.  Sadly our copy is slightly stained and the tiny size makes it difficult to share with a group - but here is the good news.  I was in a special bookshop the other day and I saw this book called Books! has been republished which is terrific and even better they have changed the size to A4.

"What is a book?  A book is many, many things, at least ten thousand.  A book is for colouring for looking at for writing in and most important for reading but what is a book?  Does it make a noise?  What does it look like and what does it do?  Can it talk to you?  What does it feel like and what does it say?"

One of things that made me smile in Books!  was the list of topics that you can read in books.  This list includes Swallows and Amazons (a childhood favourite of mine), the Amazon (a prediction about the future!) and snarks (The Hunting of the Snark). There are also fun little word lists which a teacher could use and innovate on such as hard words (anemone, if, planetarium and hippopotamus), happy words (dance, Bambi, lollipops and Greensleeves), funny words (gnus, cuckoo, Pogo and porpoise) and words to think about (Shakespeare, imagine, why and idea).

I have included a page here so you can see the retro style and colours.  One final word about books - "usually they smell good."