![\"\"](\"https:\/\/elisegravel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/photoWorstBook.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThis terrible book is available in bookstores today! Don’t buy it. It’s a total waste of money.<\/p>\n
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The Quill and Quire’s review:<\/p>\n
Elise Gravel\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>wildly creative new picture book\u00a0<\/span>purports to have no imagination at all. Called\u00a0The Worst Book Ever, it\u2019s a fairy-tale story of a prince and princess who lead exceptionally boring lives until one day a monster arrives and the prince must save the princess.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n A plot like this is shockingly retrograde. That\u2019s why there are three bonus characters \u2013 a spider, a blob, and a star-like creature \u2013 who live outside of the story and are reading and commenting on it as it progresses. Like Statler and Waldorf or the robot characters from\u00a0Mystery Science Theater 3000, they provide biting humour and judgment, calling out the off-putting title, the fact that \u201cPrinse\u201d and \u201cPrinsess\u201d are continually spelled\u00a0wrong, and how \u201cugly\u201d the illustrations are. It\u2019s an early lesson in meta-narratives for young readers \u2013 and it\u2019s a riot for the whole family.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n The book is the perfect balance of fun and big\u00a0themes hidden under more fun. Gravel is loyal to her fan base, cramming in plenty of bodily function humour, while the voice-of-reason characters remind kids that a book should be more than just boogers and farts. These astute critics also point out the story\u2019s sexism, lack of diversity, gratuitous violence, and use of clich\u00e9s \u2013 making this a surprisingly effective classroom tool for what to include in a book report.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n The illustrations are purposefully simplistic and ill-proportioned \u2013 but still jokey and weird enough to amuse. And there are visual gags for\u00a0older readers, including a cover sticker that proudly states \u201cWinner of Zero Book Awards.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n There are very few children\u2019s books that are both laugh-out-loud funny and completely on-point and undidactic in their teachable moments. Gravel has nailed this \u2013 and made it look easy.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This terrible book is available in bookstores today! Don’t buy it. It’s a total waste of money. The Quill and Quire’s review: Elise Gravel\u2019s\u00a0wildly creative new picture book\u00a0purports to have no imagination at all. Called\u00a0The Worst Book Ever, it\u2019s a fairy-tale story of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[76,5,10,43,109,48],"class_list":["post-6040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book","tag-children","tag-fun","tag-funny","tag-kidlit","tag-kids"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n