The Character in the Book

by Kaethe Zemach

When the character in the book gets an invitation to visit his Auntie in her book, he's all set to go. But when he tries to get out of his book, he runs into some trouble. He can't get out at the top of the page, and he can't get out at the bottom. So he tries going forward -- and going forward works!By foot, on wheels, unfazed by the occasional mountain or river in his way, the plucky Character finally zips right out of his own book...and right into his auntie's.When the Character in the Book gets an invitation to visit his dear Auntie, he’s all set to go. But when he tries to get out of his book, he runs into some trouble. He can’t get out at the top of the page, and he can’t get out at the bottom. So he tries going forward, and going forward works just fine. By foot, on wheels, unfazed by the occasional mountain or river in his way, the plucky Character zips out of his own book—and right into his Auntie’s!
When the Character in the Book gets an invitation to visit his dear Auntie, he’s all set to go. But when he tries to get out of his book, he runs into some trouble. He can’t get out at the top of the page, and he can’t get out at the bottom. So he tries going forward, and going forward works just fine. By foot, on wheels, unfazed by the occasional mountain or river in his way, the plucky Character zips out of his own book—and right into his Auntie’s!

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Has also written as Kaethe Zemach-Bersin, but per call to pub. Oct. 2004, correct name used is Kaethe Zemach.

Reviews

[Kirsten]

Not much happens. The Character (yes, that is his unimaginative name) runs, tumbles, rides a boat etc in order to reach the end of the book to visit his aunt's book. In fact, the whole point of the book, for both the character and myself was to just finish it. Not a good read, but because of the cute illustrations I'll give it two stars.

[Meredith]

It's a fun idea, but I wasn't really sure how well it would go over with my pre-k kids. But they liked it, they really liked it! They especially had a great time trying to figure out how he was going to get out of the book.

[Diane]

There once was a Character who lived in a book. He had a nice life — but one day, his Aunt wrote him a letter and asked him to come visit her in her book ...

[Kris Dersch]

Lots of potential but not a lot of there there.

[Dolly]

Strange meta tale about a character who wants to get out of his book to visit his aunt who is a character in a different book. The concept is humorous and the illustrations are charming, but the book really fell pretty flat for us. It was just ok,

[The Brothers]

An okay story of a character in a book. He lives his life between the pages until one day he receives a letter from his aunt inviting him to visit her in her book. It takes him awhile, but he finally figures out how to leave his pages to go to her book.

Illustrations are okay.

[Mir]

Fun concept: a character in a book is invited to visit a relative in a different book -- but how to get out of the book? Execution was pretty bland, though.

[Benjamin Mueller]

A good book for introducing the concept of characters to first-second grade audiences.