It's a Book

Smith, L. (2011). It's a book. NY: Roaring Brook.

About the Book

The use of satire in this book is very ingenious. It is a parity on the use of technology in our society causing people to forget how to do things with out it. The monkey has a book and the donkey has a computer. The donkey asks the monkey all kinds of questions about computers to see if his book can do them. The monkey grows annoyed with the donkey's ignorance. So eventually he takes the computer away and hands the book to the donkey. The donkey reads it and acts like he gets it. Until the last statement he makes, "Don't worry I'll charge it up for you."

Visual Elements of Art Evaluation

Abstract Art – The drawings are very simple with basic shapes and basic colors. The monkey and the donkey are drawn to resemble simple familiar images to the reader, so the author does not have to specifically state the characters for the reader to understand the characters. Rectangles, squares, circles and triangles are used to create the images throughout the book.

Literature Evaluative Criteria

Understatement – The pictures and the text work together to present the sarcasm and dry humor throughout the text. Irony is also unspoken in the book. I think the book is making fun of our society’s dependence on tablets and technology, and when faced with the traditional ways of gather information some are at a loss. Which is perfectly illustrated with the donkey not understanding how a book works and the monkey being dumbfounded and annoyed with his ignorance.