The Book About Books

An interesting, light-hearted but informative book which covers many aspects of publishing, writing, the history of books and also the possible future of books. We are taken on a detailed tour of the world of books and children's literature, including selected extracts from well known novels such as Madame Doubtfire and Harry Potter. There are sections on librarians, book prizes, censorship and aspects of publishing which many children may not have considered, such as copyright and ISBNs. That might not sound particularly inspiring material but the lively text and cartoon style illustrations give a new dimension to seemingly lack-lustre topics. The main body of text is also interspersed with boxes containing book facts. For instance, did you know that before the Education Act of 1871, the only country where most of the grown up population could read was Sweden? Apparently this was because the Lutheran Church refused to marry people until they could! One quibble - in the section on censorship we are told that 'the Iranians lifted the fatwah [on Salman Rushdie] in September 1988. What was actually agreed was that it would not be carried out - a fatwah cannot be lifted.