I Don't Want to Read This Book Aloud

by Max Greenfield Narrated by Max Greenfield

Overview

Another hilarious audiobook from actor Max Greenfield, author of I Don't Want To Read This Book and This Book Is Not a Present, dedicated to introverts of all ages, about the horrors of reading aloud.

Nobody in the world actually enjoys reading aloud, do they? Impossible! After all, any number of terrible things could happen: you might come across a word you don't know how to pronounce. Or get distracted by a volcano eruption and lose your place. Even worse, you might accidentally hear the sound of your own voice! Actor Max Greenfield (New Girl, The Neighborhood) and New York Times bestselling illustrator Mike Lowery, the duo behind I Don't Want To Read This Book and This Book Is Not a Present, are back with another side-splitting book that's sure to have kids shouting for repeat read-alouds.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Praise for I Don't Want to Read This Book Aloud:

"Hilarious . . . The reading aloud of this metatextual discourse contradicts the narrator’s avowed aversion to doing so and does it with panache." —Kirkus Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

2023-06-21
What is the point of reading a book aloud?

Greenfield and Lowery’s latest work of metafiction—after I Don’t Want To Read This Book (2021) and This Book Is Not a Present (2022)—features an agitated unseen narrator objecting to the idea of reading a book aloud: “It’s dopey words like aloud that make me want to remain asilent.” The rambling and occasionally digressive complaint provides an excellent canvas for Lowery’s energetic, hand-drawn typography and whimsical, charmingly silly drawings. Nearly every word is in capitals and gets its own color, size, or blocky 3-D rendering, resulting in a set of stage directions for a reader’s voice, graphically indicating pacing and emphasis. The detours from the cranky harangue are amusing. The narrator literally addresses “the elephant in the room”—“Hello, Elephant!”—and a few pages later focuses on the possibility that a word like aplomb could show up. The elephant offers a helpful definition of aplomb with, well, aplomb. Concerns about the pitfalls of performance are at the heart of this monologue. At one point the narrator’s worries (“I mean, what if I lose my place?...What am I supposed to do then? START OVER?”) are itemized on the verso and repeated on the recto. The audience will possibly find this hilarious. The sly paradox, of course, is that the reading aloud of this metatextual discourse contradicts the narrator’s avowed aversion to doing so and does it with panache. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Appealing for entertainers and those who would rather just listen. (Picture book. 6-9)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940178284872
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	09/19/2023
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	Up to 4 Years

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