A failed attempt at humour

the Many faces of Ernie - Judy Freudberg

This book was just plain silly. Bert is reading a book called boring stories (and in an attempt to be funny, and failing miserably, Bert is finding this book to be very interesting: his favourite part of the book is the table of contents – are they trying to make Bert into some form of geek?) and Ernie has just received a disguise kit in the mail, so he tries to test it out to see if he can fool Bert (and fails miserably).

 

 

I notice that this book is actually written in a comic book style with the characters speaking in speech bubbles. As such I wonder if you would call this book a graphic novel? Actually, since it is so short, and the story so pointless and meaningless I think not. I am not sure whether this book actually works to teach children how to read or whether it is only for entertainment value. Sure it teaches them how to read, but it is not on the level of the Dr Seuss books – it is just a plain old comic book that is supposed to be funny.

 

Mind you, at the end of the book poor old Bert is on the wrong end of a home invasion. Even though he thinks Ernie is disguised as a monster I am sure that if he knew it was a monster the monster would not have barged in and started tearing up the place, and stealing his book of boring stories. Still, being somebody who is radically opposed to burning books, I don't think I could even bring myself to burn a book call boring stories – actually, I wonder how well a book called boring stories would sell?

 

Source: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/768400549