I Hate to Read!

by Rita Marshall, Étienne Delessert (Illustrator)

Victor Dickens hates to read, and nothing can change his mind. Or can it? How about a parrot with a peg leg? Or a rabbit with black barn boots? This Benjamin Franklin Award winner will attract even the most resistant young readers.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction

32 pages, Hardcover

First published August 31, 1992

Reviews

[Joseph Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is about a boy named Victor who hates to read and would rather watch his TV show than read. The characters out of the books come to life and drag Victor into the stories. When Victor realizes all the adventures that he has been through in the stories, he starts changing his mind about how he hated reading and was starting to ignore his TV shows. The adventures that VIctor has been in made him want to start reading and grew his interest in reading different stories. The ending of the story showed Victor starting to read more and not showing interest in his TV shows that he likes to watch.

I thought that the book was pretty awesome and the imagery in the book was very precise and showed all the characters that Victor was with during his adventures. I would recommend this book to any kid that hates to read, and when they read this book, they would imagine if those characters would bring them into their adventures just like Victor did. The 4 out of 5 rating I gave about the book shows clearly why I think this book is so interesting to read. If any of my kids hated to read or they didn't want to read something for their school, I would give them this book to read to hopefully change their minds and start to enjoy reading more often.

[Kiera · Rating 2 out of 5]

I Hate to Read is a book about a young boy named Victor who does not like reading at all, so he pretends to read so he can do something that he really likes which is watch T.V. One of the animals crawls out of the bok and tell him to jump in only if he loves reading, he declines. He has a crazy dream and is now apart of the book he read. Once he wakes up he feels sorry for the animals in the book and wants to know what he can do to help them. This story maybe be exciting for children because it is adventurous and makes them anticipate on the ending.

[Beatriz Rosales · Rating 3 out of 5]

En gran formato, este pequeño cuento invita a que se encuentre el amor y el gusto por leer. Victor Dickens es un pequeño adicto a la televisión, y que proclama ¡Odio leer!,pero un día encuentra que dentro de los libros hay personajes maravillosos que le invitan a entrar en sus historias. Así conoce a un cocodrilo parlante, una ratita que posee monedas de oro, un loro pirata aventurero, un conejo con botas y despues de esos encuentros cambia su forma de ver a los libros.

[Tammy Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This children's picture book is a description of a regular boy who does not want to read. Victor is a boy in every sense of the word so almost always and most of the time describes his actions but not when it comes to reading. He has the " I Hate To Read" syndrome. His dog, page started it when he found books as a puppy and chewed them up in puppy style and buried the pieces in the flowerpots. He did well in school except when it can to his ABC's. His parents tried, his cousin tried but Victor said no and that was that. When he pretended to read, to gain TV time, he had a crocodile, a mouse and a parrot come out of the book he was supposed to be reading, tempting him to adventures to read. When he saw a rabbit leap out he turned the page of his book but when a frog, slippery and with a broken feather in his hat pleaded for him to turn the page, he did. He found the princess and she looked like a girl in his class that invited him to her birthday party, yuck. That was it. He slammed the book shut. Almost dark, he saw a bird with a glowworm in her beak and made the observation, "It's fun to read Victor Dickens, even when you're not supposed to" but, it still didn't sway him. He fell asleep and soon dreamed of a monster dog eating books then it was witch throwing books into a cauldron filled with snakes. The kids in his class were chanting, "we hate to read". He woke up and stared at the book on his desk. He felt bad if the friends in his book were lost. He opened his book and hated... to have the book come to the end.
I really enjoyed this book and could see it used in the elementary grades. There are always children who hate to read and this may change their minds when they search for a character or setting. Soon a story may intrigue them and it may be fun to read even when you're not supposed to.

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the idea behind this book. This book starts off with a boy who hates to read named, Victor. Victor is then visited by many animals from all sorts of fun stories to get him to read. The character development of victor, I think, is relatable to a lot of kids. At the beginning of the book victor hated to read, but by the end of the story he doesn't want to stop. I loved the pictures throughout this book as well. Overall, I thought it was very well done.

[Suzanne Lorraine Kunz Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun book about a boy who hated to read.

**Talking points - do you like to read, love to read or hate to read? Why? If you like reading, when did you start liking it? How do you feel that liking to read has benefited you through life?

[✨Cait ✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this to my little brother it was very cute and I recommend to young readers!

[Tara Ravi · Rating 2 out of 5]

The plot is disjointed and it would be hard for small children to comprehend that Victor is going into the books he is reading. Maybe if he physically got sucked into a book? Now that's a story

[Little Seesaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has lots of fun creative pictures and scenes to talk about. The big surprise is the little boy ends up wanting to read, ok maybe it wasn't a big surprise.

[Mariah Hendrickson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. Watching how the little boy gets sucked into the story is why I love reading so much. A story comes to life when you read and offers you an escape. Stories take you places when you are stuck in one place! I recommend this book to any teacher or parent who has a child that hates reading. This book might just help them understand why so many others enjoy reading.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Victor Dickens is a victim of the I Hate to Read syndrome. Then one day, as he is pretending to read, a character leaps from the pages and invites him to a story time. Soon, more characters are appearing.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping this would be more. It was sweet but not something I would share with a class full of students.

[Liz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Was this written by someone on acid?

[Laurie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Publishers Weekly (June 14, 1993)

Although ``most of the time Victor Dickens was a really good kid,'' he manifests all the symptoms of the ``I Hate to Read Syndrome.'' One day, while Victor is pretending to read so that he can move on to his favorite activity--watching TV--an alligator pops out of the pages of the book and bids Victor to jump into his pockets, where other children await story hour. Victor resists the invitation, as well as those issued by a succession of outlandish animals who try to entice him to read. A bizarre dream turns the stubborn boy around, however, and when he awakens he decides that he feels ``a little sad'' for the animals, for ``What would happen to them if their stories were lost?'' So Victor opens his book to look for his friends, and, predictably, becomes engrossed. Marshall's text may be didactic but it is liberally sprinkled with clever wordplay, and her book design offers such diversions as folios facing every conceivable direction. Yet most impressive is Delessert's inventive art, which wreaks playful havoc with perspective and scale, and features striking, earth-tone pastels punctuated with splashes of vibrant color. Ages 6-up. (June)

[Mymcbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Review: Have you tried to get your child to read and they just want to do other things like play video games? Well, meet Victor Dickens a stubborn boy who wear his helmet when skateboarding, combs his hair for the class picture, like to share with his dog, Page. He is good in math and science but fails in ABCs. Victor just hates reading.

So why he was pretending to read while watching Television, some characters started to crawl out of the book. First it was a crocodile in a white coat asking him to jump into his pocket. It's time to read said the crocodile, it's story time. But Victor told him that he hate to read. And that's how his adventure started with each character from the book giving Victor an invitations to encourage him to read. With each adventures, Victor started to find reading interesting as he read each page, he just hated the story to come to an end. This will be a great addition to the school and home library.


FTC Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from Gone Reading International in exchange for a fair and honest review. I was not monetarily compensated for my opinion in any way.

[Leigh Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main character, Victor Dickens, hates to read. He does well in all his other subjects like math and science, but he makes it very clear that he hates to read. However, one night when he was pretending to read so he could watch TV, interesting things started to happen. Victor learns that words in his book can take him on unexpected adventures. These unexpected adventures start to shift his feelings about reading and help him to use his imagination in ways he thought were never possible.
I liked the illustrations, especially the use of colors with the supporting characters. I noticed the author bolded the first word or sentence for every page which I thought was interesting. I also liked how the author structured the text in the story by using ellipses and hyphens to accentuate certain words. I also liked how the main character, Victor, started closing his eyes and using his imagination and started making "mind movies" in his head. I also liked the ending when he made a choice, and that it's this choice that led him to hate something else other than reading. Overall, I believe it's a great fun book for children, particularly those who may not like to read.

[Audra Sein · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about a young boy named Victor Dickens who absolutely hates to read. As he pretends to read so he can watch TV, a character from the book jumps out and invites him into the story. By the end of the book, several more characters have offered Victor their invitations. Will Victor accept and discover that reading isn't so bad after all? Read the book to find out.

I think that this book would be great to share with students who, like Victor, insist that they hate to read. It provides a great starting point for a conversation with these students about why reading can be an enjoyable experience because they can relate to the character, Victor. I did however, find this book a bit confusing. I think it would have been made less confusing if the book Victor was reading was a book young readers could relate to, and all the characters who invite Victor into the book were from that one book. That bit of criticism aside, I would recommend that teachers share this book with their students who fall in the niche of "hates to read."

[Sarah Finley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Victor Dickens, the young boy in this book refused to read because he claimed that he "hated reading". But, once Victor finds himself in an adventure he realizes that he likes to read and doesn't care so much about his TV show anymore. Personally, I didn't think this book was amazingly exciting but I did think that it was fun. The characters were unique and the illustrations were done really well, but they aren't my favorite kind of illustrations. I love books that have cartoon like images with a lot of color and detail. I think the moral of this story is something that a lot of children can relate to nowadays. Children in today's world are so wrapped up in the television that they don't take the time to read or learn things that they aren't forced to learn. I actually enjoy reading and I think a lot of others would too if they tried to read something they weren't being forced to read for school.

[Shannon Wasgatt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about a boy, Victor, who does not like to read. One day the characters in his book come to life and Victor enters the stories. His attitude toward reading changes as he goes through the stories.

Overall, this book was alright. The illustrations are nicely done, but there is not much there to explore. One things I wonder about is the authors decision to refer to Victor as a "victim of I HATE TO READ syndrome."

[Lindsay Larsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that this book had a good purpose, but it doesnt do it justice. The main idea is that reading can provide stories and characters that you can get involved with. Most of the book is just a boy saying he hates to read. I wish the book spent more time helping us understand what the boy was thinking, and not just saying. Then, we could see how the boy's opinion changes throughout his encounters.

[Ruth Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Victor hates to read, probably because he does well in math and science but not in his ABC's. After meeting several great characters in books, Victor hates to stop reading! (Thus this book taps into the"heart" reason for reading.)

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Victor Dickens hates to read. He meets many characters along the way but still hates to read. I am planning to read this book the first week of school to my third graders. I know some of my students will identify with Victor and will also change their minds by years end.

[Alegria Curiel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! This book was so fun to read! I just loved how this boy reminded me of my sister who hated reading as well but just like Victor and take one book to find you and open you up to other world of reading can be fun. I really recommanded for all young kids who dislike books!

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book is good for kids who 'hate to read' or at least think they hate the idea of reading. It takes them on a journey and they get to learn about different animals and stories along the way. The colors in this book were also very nice and the pages were fun to look at.

[A. Somers · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really disliked this book. The story was disjointed and difficult to follow. I don't think it succesffully inspires a reluctant reader to pick up a book. The title might grab the ir attention, but they will quickly become bored and or frustrated when trying to follow the story.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was okay but the second one was better...I know that is really strange! This one is still full of imagination....and did anyone notice that the page numbering is all sorts of crazy and funky and stuff!

[Lori · Rating 2 out of 5]

Younger readers will completely miss that this little boy is becoming curious in reading and the adventures opened up to him by doing so. Enjoyable for those with better reading comprehension.

[Dianna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confusing, wordy, weird.

[Barbara James · Rating 4 out of 5]

picture book

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. Victor is a victim?? Terrible message, scary pictures.