The Worst Book Ever

by Beth Bacon, Corianton Hale (Illustrator), Jason Grube (Illustrator)

Most bad books look forward to hanging out at rummage sales. Not this bad book. Its goal is to be featured in the library’s Banned Books List. Problem is, no one seems to notice… until the book teams up with its boisterous readers. Together, the book and its readers shout, wiggle, and sing to get the attention of a local librarian. Will this book see its cover on the library wall… or will it end up in the recycling bin? Full of bold, colorful graphics and laugh-out-loud humor, The Worst Book Ever is another colorful, graphical, high-lo book for reluctant readers by Beth Bacon. The meta-storytelling and interactive prompts get reluctant readers laughing, dancing, shouting—and reading. Ideal for read-alouds and story time, as well as independent reading for beginning to intermediate readers. Like Beth Bacon’s other books, I Hate Reading, The Book No One Wants To Read, and Blank Space, this book helps make reading fun.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Humor, Fiction, Books About Books, Ebooks

146 pages, Paperback

Published April 26, 2018

About the author

Beth Bacon is the author of books for reluctant readers. Her titles include The Book No One Wants To Read, I Hate Reading, Blank Space and The Worst Book Ever. Beth’s awards include the Candlewick Award for Picture Book Writing, the Marion Dane Bauer Award for Middle Grade Writing, and PSAMA PULSE Award Finalist for marketing. She has an MFA in Writing For Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Visit her website at www.bethbaconauthor.com.

Reviews

[Shainlock]

I love it! It actually takes a while to flip through and read, consider, and it is interactive. It's a fun concept that gives the book a mind and the book tells you its philosophy. It's one of the cutest things I have ever seen, but this is not for little ones. It's more for those whom understand banned books and the satire here.

[Montzalee Wittmann]

A funny "bad" book

Kids will love this 'bad' book. The book tries everything to be banned and it is a hoot! He gets the young readers involved too, truly a fun book for kids!

[Gemma]

Not at all what I expected! Great fun to read with a child. Very good book.

[🌶 peppersocks 🧦]

Reflections and lessons learned:
“I don’t understand Librarians at all...”
Of course books have personalities, and some are gits... don’t judge a book by it’s portrayed cover though - we all wear masks 🎭 including anthropomorphic and personified objet d’art (yeah I looked those up in a dictionary - an online dictionary so take that book!)

I definitely won’t be buying physical copies of this book to lead youngsters astray

[Jessica Camacho]

So cute!

Absolutely adorable! Every librarian (teacher, parent, etc.) needs this book in their library. It’s not a book to read before bed or nap time - too active and loud - but a must read!

[Jenwatson]

I used to read this to my child who has ADHD. He loved it! Today when I asked him what he wanted to read, he chose this one. It's probably been three or four years since we read it, and he still remembers it. He said it was his favorite book growing up. It was fun for him to read it again.

[Kim]

This was just such a funny cute children's book where the book asks the reader to think of stuff and do things. Would be great for both library and classroom storytimes as it is interactive instead of passive reading. Recommend for very young children.

Source: My personal purchased library.

[Lasynda Shichiroji]

Interesting

My son really liked this book. He has a lot of fun reading it and interacting with it. He was very silly and really got into reading this book. I think I need to find more silly books like this for him to read.

[Virginia]

This was really cute and fun. I won't be adding to my personal physical collection "bad" book, so dreams do come true!

[Janelle]

How I wish I had some kids to read this book to.

[Cherry London]

This little fun and facetious read would put a smile on your kids' faces when they see the name and the look the book was giving them, but on completion would leave them smiling, even if it was the worst book they ever read. A quirky and fun way to approach the topic of how to get your kids attracted to reading.

[Tiffany White]

My boys and I enjoyed this book. Initially something about this title bugged me and I couldn't quite place my finger on it. After some thought I realized that I was bothered by the fact that the book never points out that rarely are librarians the ones doing the banning. At first, it felt like a slight to librarians. After sitting with it, I realized that this is told from the point of view of the book. So yes, a book WOULD think the librarian does the banning.

Without the conversations around book banning happening it would look like librarians are banning books. During banned books week we often see a plethora of book displays, posters, and bulletin boards with pictures of books that have been challenged and banned to bring attention to the books. I know my library encourages readers to "read a banned/challenged book" every year as part of our summer reading program. When you read this one just remember: you're getting the book's story. You have to leave what you know about banned books behind.

This book just really wants its picture up on the wall. It wants to be highlighted. So it does all the things! Bad words, nonsensical words, punctuation errors, spelling mistakes, it's loud, it makes the reader act out. All the things that people highlight about banned books. But that doesn't get it banned. However, the book DOES get highlighted. For storytime. Ultimately, it just wanted its picture on the wall so maybe storytime isn't so bad.

It was a great lead-in to the plight of librarians and the challenges books face with my younger son. My teen knows a bit about banned books and (now in 2021) especially all the challenges that are coming out of Texas. This gave us a chance to introduce and update my younger son without it sounding like a lecture - which was great for just before bedtime.

[Lia Brent]

This book wants your attention. And for some reason, this self-called “bad” book thinks that negative attention is the only way this book will be noticed. Kids will appreciate the lengths this book will go to get banned by the librarians: gross words, deliberate misspellings and punctuation mistakes, and more. Everything kids would do if they could get away with it! And when the readers won’t skedaddle, the book enlists the readers’ help by telling them to do BAD things in the library! C’mon, who hasn’t wanted to be bad (for a good cause) sometimes! Interactive is good to keep a young reader’s interest. Add in a few fun puns and you have the adults attention, too. After all that effort, when the librarians finally do notice the book, the book has to remember what the ultimate goal was.
The color scheme is the retro mustard, green, and red-orange, with some violet, aqua, black, and white thrown in. The graphic design illustrations are simple but captivating. Did I give away too much? Nah… This book will always get what it wants because it is engaging and funny. No reluctant reader can ignore its brashness!

[Barbara Ann]

This book desperately wants to be a bad boy. His goal is to become a banned book in the library. He tries everything to win the librarian's disapproval. Some of his tactics include using gross words, misspelled words, and made-up words. The book enlists readers to assist him by being loud and doing everything possible to annoy the librarian like flapping arms, wiggling and jumping up and down in their seats. To his dismay, the book makes its way into storytime.

This book is filled with lots of humor, graphics and simple illustrations. There are vivid colors, lots of variation in print size, alliteration, and onomatopoeia. Bacon playfully encourages her readers to become accomplices in the book's quest for notoriety.

[Chelsea (thepageprincess)]

This one wasn't as good as the other one I read by the author, but I guess that is because some of the book didn't make sense to me. The book wanted story time, but I was confused about what a child might think if he is reading this book alone. It also required the kid to get up a lot and wiggle and scream, which is fun for the kid but I am not sure how the adults would feel depending upon the situation. Overall, I liked it and I would say this is really good in a situation where the child could freely do the activities in the book and where an adult would be willing to read it with them or something.

[Peacegal]

3.5 stars--Clever and funny interactive title about a book who just wants to be "bad." This one would especially appeal to reluctant readers. I will say, however, that if you follow the book's instruction to make a bunch of pointless noise to annoy the librarian, please do so in the children's area of the library only. If I had a dime for every patron working on a job application, test, or schoolwork while a kid was being noisy nearby...yeah, not a good situation for anyone. Libraries need quiet areas for a reason.

[Cynthia Gutzwiller]

Cobblecracker, Flishfoshfiffer

This is a very unusual book filled with hilarity. This great book is best read aloud and even reluctant readers will get involved with this interactive fun book. I highly recommend this book for 5-8 year olds.
Book wants to be and works to be a "bad" book. He relaxes in the bottom of cardboard boxes of garage sales and a few other places. His greatest goal in life is to be a "Banned" book in the library. Enjoy his journey, laugh at his journey flap your arms at his journey and just get ready to have FUN with his journey.

[Cheryl]

Lots of fun, and wit, but, um, it's not librarians who ban books. Read this with your children or students, sure, but make absolutely sure that the kids know that purple book is confused about how to get banned and what it means.

I much prefer the book that is the size of a chapter book (as opposed to this small fat picture-book), The Book No One Wants to Read.

[Lisa]

My 7 yo loves this book.

I got this book for my 7yo daughter. She had a hard time reading this because she was laughing so hard in parts. She absolutely loved this book and after reading it, proclaimed, "I LOVE Beth Bacon! She is so funny!". Then, she immediately asked to download I Hate Reading. I have a feeling we'll be downloading the entire Beth Bacon library before the end of the night.

[Shaye Miller]

This is a cute picture book where the “bad” book is trying to do everything it can to upset the librarian and get banned — yelling, using words not in a dictionary, making obvious grammatical mistakes, and getting the reader to say “gross” words (like barf, booger, etc.). It’s funny, interactive, and would make an engaging read-aloud for young children. Might also be a fun way to kickstart banned books week.

[Sunny]

Sooooooooo fun!

This book completely surprised me at practically every page turn. I think I'm jaded about children's Kindle books, because a lot of them have been self-published with apparently no editor or an editor with little experience and they're just not very good. This was something completely different. I can't wait to share it with some tots. I fear like Dumbo was when my children were little, this will get worn out with rereads.

[Lyn Davis]

Hilarious stomp through all the reasons why this book is the worst ever. Kids and adults will catch the tributes to librarians and libraries, while chuckling through the antics of the book whose dream is to be notoriously banned. Perfect for reading aloud & showing the pictures.

Since some of the page's pictures are basically printed words, while it could be fun for a non-reader, it will captivate early readers more, since they will begin to read along.

[Pam]

Delightful way to pull in reluctant readers. This book interacts directly with readers and asks for their help to be banned. It dreams of being part of the pictures on the wall for all bad books. Young, and not so young, readers will love moving and shouting along with the book to see if they can get in trouble. Those librarians just won't cooperate and instead feature the book at Story Time. Plenty of humor and joy to encourage reading while seeming not to do so.

[Sheila]

This book is looking to be banned. He tries really hard. He even asks us to help. But he gets a surprised.

I loved this book! I laughed out loud. It was the cutest book about getting banned. This book wants banned but no matter what it does no banning is happening. Although he does finally get noticed. Your little ones will love this. They get to be loud and wiggly as you read the book with them. One of the best I have read!

[Caroline Venables]

This is a great children’s book. The author has created a fabulous way to get children to interact with the book. The book wants to be noticed, it has a plan. It wants to be banned from libraries and it’s picture to be hanging on library walls.

However the librarians don’t notice it so it plans to get the children that read it to help! The illustrations are bright and it encourages inter activity with the child, very clever.

Highly recommended.

[KF-in-Georgia]

The Worst Book Ever wants to be banned by a librarian, so it's full of bad words, library shouting, made-up words and other stuff that will make the book unpopular with librarians...but popular with readers. If you're looking for a book for reading in the library with a kid, steer clear of this unless you have a tolerant, patient, saintly librarian. Otherwise, save this book to read at home. Or maybe read when mom has a headache. Or when the baby is trying to sleep.

[Ashley Nading]

One of the best had books we've read.

I loved the minimalist illustrations and my 6 yr old twins loved the silly story. They loved making noises, moving, and making up words with the book. This would be a great read aloud. Be forewarned the book uses "bad" words, the worst of which is butt.

[Erin]

Truly this book is the "worst" They wanna be BAD. So bad, they get their cover put on the wall in the library and get BANNED pasted on the front.
Course through reading this book, you realize this book is fun and interactive and eventually the book book gets their wish only, not the way they thought.

[Catherine Yezak]

Perfect Book For Reading

A great read aloud for story time. It encourages active participation and shows that every book /reader has a purpose . Struggling readers can relate to the books attitude and children who have a hard time sitting still will love being able to follow the book's directions. This could make story hour a little rowdy.

[Michael Heidle]

So Good it's Bad; er, I mean: so BAD it's Good!!!

This is an absolutely awesome book to engage children of all ages .... meaning I, as an adult, thoroughly enjoyed as well as the little children I read it to!! But self readers will really enjoy reading this with great emotion!!! Fun, funny, engaging!! That enough to get a book banned, er, I mean: up on a wall!!