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TitleTales -- Book display
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<br />mate converts to print so enthusiastically that he vows to keep reading. Although it is adults, not
<br />children, who will best appreciate the subject and satire here, the basic drama created by the
<br />characters' arguments may help this find an audience among kids, especially tech -savvy ones.
<br />Copyright Baoklist 2010. Used with permission.
<br />Horn Book -- 2010 -09 -01
<br />This wickedly funny picture book has only three characters: a monkey, a mouse, and a donkey, the last
<br />of whom goes by a different name, and its not hard to see why. Poor Monkey is trying to read, but a
<br />jackass with a laptop keeps interrupting him with puzzled questions about the object he's absorbed in:
<br />"What do you have there?" The conversation (the text is all dialogue) occurs in a sleek, minimalistic living
<br />room environment, where design elements such as varying fonts and computer- generated onomatopoeia
<br />add to the collision of techno and non -. By process of elimination Jackass determines what Monkey's
<br />object does not do: tweet, text, blog, scroll down, or require a password. Finally he rips it from fuming
<br />Monkey's stylized paws -- only to get completely caught up in the story. Kids will enjoy feeling superior
<br />to the donkey, who's still ignorant enough to call out, "Don't worry, I'II charge it up when I'm donel" And
<br />older ones will relish the naughty punch line -- Mouse pops out from under Monkey's hat to announce,
<br />"You don't have to [charge it up]...it's a book, Jackass" -- which, really, is just calling it like it is. christine
<br />m. heppermann
<br />Copyright Horn Book 2010. Used with permission.
<br />Kirkus Reviews -- 2010 -07 -01
<br />Saucy hilarity and clever visual characterization make this wide - audience treat delectable until the
<br />potentially off- putting final page. A laptop- toting jackass is baffled by a monkey's unrecognizable
<br />possession. "What do you have there ?" "It's a book." "How do you scroll down ?" "I don't. I turn the
<br />page. It's a book." The answer to "Where's your mouse?' is universally comical -a live mouse cheekily
<br />appears from under monkey's hat. Despite advanced vocabulary (wi -fi; tweet), the refrain and pacing hit
<br />the sweet spot for preschoolers, while a Treasure Island passage reduced to AIM -speak will have
<br />middle schoolers and adults in stitches. Spongey- textured colors inhabit thick, sketchy outlines;
<br />composition is lively, facial expressions understatedly sharp. When the tech -savvy ass finally succumbs
<br />to the book's charms but still wants to "charge it up" like a computer, the mouse snarks, "You don't have
<br />to... / it's a book, Jackass." Despite Smith's sly title -page introduction of "jackass" as a legitimate animal
<br />label for donkey, this closing gibe refocuses and cheapens the humor into a gratuitous insult that yields
<br />no benefit beyond a feeling of superiority. (Picture book. 4 -11)
<br />Copyright Kirkus Roviews 2010. Used with permission.
<br />Publishers Weekly starred -- 2010 -07 -19
<br />Smith (Madam President) addresses e- literacy in his irreverent style, casting a donkey in the role of
<br />digital junkie and a gorilla as a literary type. The donkey fiddles with a laptop while the gorilla holds a
<br />novel. "What do you have there?" asks the techie, whose words are printed in ice blue, sans serif letters
<br />suggestive of a chat room. "It's a book," the ape answers, in a stately orange serif font. The donkey
<br />tests the gorilla's patience: "Can it text? Tweet? Wi -Fi ?" (When he asks, "Where's your mouse ?" a real
<br />one pops from beneath the gorilla's porkpie hat.) After the gorilla hands over Treasure Island, the
<br />donkey gripes, "Too many letters," and converts the scene to emoticons before getting hooked on the
<br />story. "I'll charge it up when I'm done!" he promises, at which the mouse squeaks, "It's a book, jackass."
<br />This smart -aleck retort, arguably justified because the donkey is a jackass in any sense of the word,
<br />urges readers to side with the scholarly gorilla. Meanwhile, Smith has the best of both worlds: his stylish
<br />drawings, sleek typography, and kid - friendly humor combine old media and new. Ages 6 -up. (Sept.)
<br />Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
<br />Copyright Publishers Weekly 2010. Used with permission.
<br />School Library Journal starred -- 2010 -08 -01
<br />Gr 3 -5 -Smith jump - starts the action on the title page where readers meet the characters -a mouse, a
<br />jackass, and a monkey. The monkey's oval head creates an "o" in the word "book." Slapstick humor
<br />ensues in an armchair face -off when one character, reared on a diet of Web 2.0 and gaming, cannot
<br />fathom what to do with a book and slings a barrage of annoying questions, "Can you blog with it? How
<br />do you scroll down? Can you make the characters fight ?" Readers know who is speaking by each
<br />animal's unique font type and color, achieving economy and elegance on each page. Exasperated,
<br />Monkey hands over the volume. Life, death, and madness, all in a single illustrated page of Treasure
<br />Island, draw Jackass in. He responds with a knee -jerk reaction ( "too many letters ") and hilariously
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