Read All About It! by Laura Bush, Jenna Bush, Denise Brunkus (Illustrator)

From Barnes & Noble

First Lady Laura Bush and daughter Jenna collaborate in this entertaining picture book about the joys and benefits of reading. At the center of the adventure is Good Day Elementary School student Tyrone. Like many other young boys, restless Ty dreads classroom story time. Things change suddenly, however, when a mysterious disappearance sets Tyrone and his buddies off on an exciting search.

From the Publisher

Tyrone rules the school!

He's king of the monkey bars, a math machine, and a science whiz.

The only thing he doesn't like about school is reading. Books are so boring! But when strange visitors start dropping by the classroom for story hour, Tyrone discovers there's more to books than just words on pages.

Tyrone and his friends are swept up in a mysterious adventure that lands them in a most unexpected place. Mrs. Laura Bush and her daughter Jenna create a classroom adventure that will leave readers racing to the shelves!

A portion of proceeds to benefit Teach for America and The New Teacher Project.

Publishers Weekly

Signature

Reviewed by Lucy Calkins

When his homeroom teacher, Miss Libro, reads aloud each day, Tyrone stubbornly ignores each story. He flies paper planes or pokes at his shoe with a pencil. One day, Tyrone actually listens, and he's amazed. Book characters spring to life, right in the classroom, and disappear when the book ends.

There are people who will love this book. After all, it addresses a problem seen across the country: many children, especially boys, choose not to read because they see books as dull. The story line of a misunderstood character who learns an important lesson and is eventually able to succeed in school is a common, and often beautiful, trajectory in children's literature. The illustrator is loved for her work with the popular Junie B. Jones series. And the authors! The authors are sincere in their love of reading-plus, they are famous.

But good intentions are not the same as a good book. The message here is that something magical happens when readers are drawn into the lives of characters. Ironically, Tyrone, the main character and narrator, never does come to life. We do not empathize with Tyrone because he's a conglomerate of traits that do not fit easily in the same person. To begin with, although Tyrone is a braggart and a self-described class clown, he sounds like Laura Bush. Here is Tyrone describing a chapter-book pig that comes to life in his classroom: "He was dirty and disorganized. He ate the most grotesque combination of leftover school lunches." Tyrone promptly joins his classmates in teaching the pig table manners-not exactly what one might expect of a ruffian who tyrannizes the school.Even Tyrone's age is unclear. Although he struts like a teenager, solves algebraic equations and towers over kindergartners, the books his teacher recommends-among them Curious George and The Cat in the Hat-suggest an audience of five- or six-year-olds, and indeed, when the class gathers at Miss Libro's knee for story hour, they appear to be first-graders.

Brunkus's participation notwithstanding, the authors are not willing to let Tyrone be disobedient and difficult the way Junie B. Jones can be. They don't really want him to do his own thing with that pig. Theirs is a world where everything is in its place. Tyrone's mother gardens, his father plays catch, and his genius friend looks like a nerd. In the books his teacher reads aloud, princes save princesses. On opening day, the bulletin board promotes good manners, and the central display in the classroom is always a list of rules: always raise your hand, follow all directions. As Tyrone comes to love books, he loses his spunk, taming the pig of his bad manners-and personality-just as the school has tamed him. Tyrone turns from the class clown to the bearer of moral lessons. In the end, this is the book's central problem. In its world of regiment and order, there is never room for a wild rumpus.

Lucy Calkins, the Robinson Professor of Children's Literature at Teachers College, Columbia University, is also the founding director of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, and the director of the Literacy Specialist Program at Teachers College.

Children's Literature

Tyrone Brown, an elementary school student, does not like books. Or rather, there are other things he would rather do than read: play tag, or weed with his mom, or play catch with his dad. He likes school, but he does not like the library, no matter how many times his teacher, Miss Libro, tells him that "You never know who you're going to meet in a good book." But one particular story hour draws him in, and then things get weird. A ghost pops out of a Halloween story, Benjamin Franklin walks into their classroom during a story hour about the Founding Fathers, and so on. A pig shows up at one point, and then disappears. Tyrone and his friends decide to be detectives and find the missing pig. They look in a few classrooms, then try the library. There is the pig. And that is the end of the story. Apologies if this review sounds like I'm telling you about a dream I had, but that's the way the book reads: it jumps around and doesn't quite have a conclusion, just an end. The illustrations are cheery, but there's nothing about this book that is going to inspire reluctant readers. Reviewer: Sara Lorimer

School Library Journal

Gr 1-3- This book begins on an odd note, as Tyrone Brown proclaims: "I'm a professional student and class clown." A primary-grade audience will be clueless as to what "professional student" means, and adults will be puzzled as to how a child can fall into that category. Tyrone explains that he enjoys science and math, but that books are "so last year" and that "the library is a boring place" with "stinky pages." He sits with his back to his teacher and colors on his shoe as she reads. Disappointed that the class is listening to the story instead of being awed by his "spaceship" (a paper airplane), Tyrone decides to listen, for a change. He not only discovers that he likes stories, but also that the characters emerge from the books. When Miss Libro reads about a pig, it pops off the page, and the children fall in love with it. However, after she finishes reading the book, the porker vanishes, and the children find all of the characters in the library. Tyrone's abrupt conversion is unlikely, as is his equally sudden ability to indulge in flights of fancy. Brunkus's bright and cheerful watercolor art features a multiethnic cast with expressive faces and energetic body language. Celebrity authorship and intriguing art will draw children to this entry, but for stories that combine fantasy with more logical plot development, stay with Carmen Deedy's The Library Dragon (Peachtree, 1994) or David McPhail's Edward and the Pirates (Little, Brown, 1997).-Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ

Kirkus Reviews

The nation's First Librarian and her daughter team up to present a well-meaning salute to the pleasures of reading. Like so many bright, active boys, Tyrone doesn't "despise" books; he just doesn't "prefer them"-until one day he actually listens during storytime and from then on he's hooked. In fact, when Miss Libro reads now, the characters from her stories physically manifest in the classroom. Brunkus depicts a genially multicultural group of kids, whose eyes widen in amazement as first ghost, then Ben Franklin then a pig pop out of Miss Libro's books. While appealing, the logic behind the characters' appearance never comes clear; the kids' stupefaction at the pig's disappearance at the end of its book is likewise unconvincing. The text displays a keen understanding of the psyche of the nonreading child, but it's unlikely to win any of them over with its muddied message. A portion of the proceeds from the purchase of this book go to Teach for America and The New Teacher Project; perhaps those nurtured by these organizations can work on effectively converting reluctant readers. (Picture book. 5-8)

Product Details

• ISBN: 0061560758
  
• ISBN-13: 9780061560750
• Format: Hardcover, 32pp
• Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books
• Pub. Date: April 2008
• Sales Rank: 2,530
• Age Range: 4 to 8