The Spirit of Adventure

It was with sadness that this week I read of the death of Brian Jacques. A quote on his website perhaps sums him up as a fearless writer with a brave heart. He was an avid reader and a brave adventurer. His work delivering milk to a primary school encouraged him to pick up his pen and write his now much loved Redwall series. without his passion, energy and enthusiasm we would not have had such a wonderful insight into the lives of his fantastic and fearless characters. Whilst we may no longer have Brian we can still have his books and we can continue to read and love them.

Being of an adventurous spirit is not something that comes naturally to me, I am rather a timid lover of my comforts but every now and again I like to surprise myself - even with books. Int he last two weeks I have read a large number from glossy girly books to funny magical and quite frightening thrillers. I have to admit that I have enjoyed them all and each has left me wanting to read more but also wishing I had the skill to be such a wonderful storyteller. Sadly I don't but I am an avid reader so it was with great interest that I delved into picture book territory, just for some light relief with the title 'It's a Book' by Lane Smith (Macmillan, 2011, 9780230753136) technically I don't think that I should be writing about it here in the Blog for as the back cover says

"Can it text? Blog? Scroll? Wi-fi? Tweet? No. . . it's a book."

However if I didn't tell you about it here then you perhaps wouldn't be able to share it with anyone and everyone or have the great big grin that I had plastered across my face after I had finsihed reading it!

I love it, it is simple, clever, enjoyable and it is a book! The premise is simple, an adult and a child, one reading a book the other with a computer unable to comprehend this new device. Soon something miraculous happens and whilst the detail of the actually far from detailed pictures reveals all there is much fun to be had. This is simply a simple story with simple pictures but one that is intensely clever, witty and as appealing to an adult as a child. I urge you to read it as soon as possible, perhaps even buy it and never ever part with it, or any other books in favour of a computer again!