PB Review: Boo Loves Books

Boo Loves Books is an incredibly sweet story about a girl who doesn’t really like books – until she meets a friend who helps her overcome her worries.

“Everyone in Miss Spinelli’s class liked reading. Everyone except Phoebe.” Phoebe is a young girl who just doesn’t like to read – she gets worried when she doesn’t know the sound of a letter, and ones that are joined together make her freeze. Ultimately, reading just makes her really nervous and self conscious, and she feels anxious whenever they have to start reading in class. Then one day, their class visits a dog shelter and Phoebe meets Big Boo – a shaggy pooch who is a bit anxious too.

This book is adorable. The illustrations are sweet and simple, and Big Boo is pretty cute too. It has a great message and I think its great to feature books with characters who don’t love reading, as it can be a scary thing learning to read, and sometimes it helps to have a friend.

My only issue with this book is very small – I just thought it was called ‘boy loves books’, due to the front cover and I spent some time being confused wondering where this boy was going to turn up. But this is possibly more a reflection of my own silliness, but I think a paw print is a tad allusive in its meaning. BUT, maybe this was done on purpose, as it put me in Phoebe’s position of feeling uncomfortable with not being able to understand something straight away. So there ya go.