It’s a Book book review by Jaxson

Title of the Book: It’s a Book 

Author Name: Lane Smith 

Reviewer's Name: Jaxson 

Publisher: Roaring Book Press 

Date of Publication: 2010 

Rating: 5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

Are you reading this online? How long have you been mindlessly scrolling through the internet? The children’s novel It’s a Book by Lane Smith tells the story of a monkey and a jackass making their way through life, one equipped with a phone and the other with a book. The jackass asked questions about how the book works, unfamiliar with its function. But the monkey simply replies every time with “It’s a book.” Then, a snippet of the book inside the book appears to show us a detailed description of a pirate, creating a parallel story and drawing a foil between the phone and the book in a very clear way. 

The jackass is obviously unfamiliar with the meaning of a book, which is evidenced by constantly asking questions about whether the book has a password or the ability to tweet. At the end of the story, the jackass takes the book from the monkey, and the latter says they’ll go to the library to get a new book. When the jackass says they will make sure to charge the book, the story ends with the monkey saying “You don’t need to. It’s a book, jackass.” This pun has a dual effect on the story, firstly being the only time the monkey actually acknowledges the presence of their companion. However, its additional meaning that the reader can infer is the double meaning of the word jackass, which has a connotation of “frustrating or annoying person” in English. 

This book is clearly a parody of the shallow nature of modern-day society. The compression of the human experience into scrolling down a screen is a sad shadow of the independent thinking that comes from enjoying and reading books, and this book clearly manages to explain it in a way children can understand and laugh along. Overall, I’d give this book 5 stars for its humorous plot line and introspective themes.