We’ve all been under house arrest for just so long. We’ve built Lego towers as tall as the ceiling and kicked footballs so hard our shoes flew off (maybe that’s just me). We’ve sweated our way through Joe Wicks’ workouts in our slippers. We’ve tried our darnedest to make it fun. But we’re. . . still. . . in. . . the house.
But then, we found a way to escape.
Books I hear you cry, yes books! Through their pages we’ve flown on magic carpets, crept through secret passageways, and hidden from dinosaurs. And this week, there was no better BOOK to escape with, than ‘I don’t like books. Never. Ever. The end’, by Emma Perry and Sharon Davey.
We opened this brilliant debut, and with a rustling, a crackling and a flick of the page, we were no longer in our garden worrying about a cough. . . we were in the outer reaches of space. No wait, we were on a knights’ quest. Hang on. . . we were hot on the trail of an intriguing mystery.
It begins with a stroppy little girl called Mabel. Mabel does NOT like books, frankly she’d much rather use them as a sledge. But after years of neglect, the books have had enough. There’s a literary uprising and Mabel is pulled into the pages of her unread books.
My six-year-old, otherwise known as THE BOSS, summarises: “Mabel falls into the books. She gets trapped in another world. . . Books are exciting because you never know what adventures are tucked inside the pages.”
THE BOSS went on. . .
“I’m disappointed right now because I don’t get to see any, any, of my friends. Books help to get it off my mind. . . I think about adventures instead. I want to go rock climbing, tree swinging, all of those!”
We’re powerless right now. THE BOSS and her little bro are seventy something days into lockdown and they don’t want to do it. I’m reluctantly running a school from my kitchen table and I don’t want to do that either. We eat whatever we can get delivered. We wanted chicken. . . turns out we’re having ham. What we do have power over is our own imaginations. The power to dream, to create, to escape. And with a rustling, a crackling, and a flick of a page, for a few glorious moments each day. . . we’re free.
And. As an extra bonus, here’s a super special illo from THE BOSS inspired by Sharon Davey’s illustrations of Mabel…
THE BOSS draws Mabel
Grab the I Don’t Like Books. Never. Ever. The End. over here. and have a go and drawing your own version of Mabel too!
