I Hate Reading: how to read when you’d rather not

Readers may feel tricked by this book. As someone who does enjoy reading, the title made me feel uncomfortable but I think that for some children the deliberately intriguing words may actually work.

There are no pictures to entertain a reluctant reader in this novel shaped hardback. Only bold design and bold statements about the despair of being forced to read as well as advice on how to avoid this situation. With the reader finding such unlikely solidarity in the form of a book, they will (hopefully) be compelled to read on and by the end of the book a deep connection with the text may well have been made, leaving the reader wanting more. Although the book admits to having tricked them into a whole ten minutes of reading, there is still a compulsion to read on. Eventually the book tells them to ‘Go and play!’

This book is exactly why we want people to read; it provides understanding and empathy for a common problem and hopefully helps the, previously reluctant, reader to feel less alone and, of course, to read on.

Title: I Hate Reading: how to read when you’d rather not

Author: Beth Bacon as told by her kids, Arthur & Henry

Illustrator: Rick Farley

Publisher: Pushkin Press

ISBN: 978-1-78269-296-6

RRP: $22.99

Format: Hardback

Publication: February 2021

Ages: 7+

Reviewer: Kirsten Puddick, Librarian, Holy Cross School, Miramar, Wellington

How are you recommending this book? Highly recommended

What’s the book’s opening sentence? OK, you have to read for 20 minutes but you don’t want to.

You can buy this book here