IT'S A BOOK
Lane Smith
Walker Books
NZ$29.99 A$27.95

A witty, mischievous and highly entertaining picture book for all ages, especially adults, It's a Book offers a humorous take on the printed page versus digital debate.
In it we meet a long-suffering monkey with a book and an inquisitive jackass armed with an electronic device. The jackass is mystified by the monkey’s book and asks what it is.

“It’s a book,” replies Monkey.
“Can it text?” Jackass queries.
“No.”
“Tweet?”
“No.”

By the end, the jackass learns the joys of the printed page (although he still
can’t quite grasp how the book “works”). And along the way, IT’S A BOOK
delivers what USA Today’s “Pop Candy” calls “the best last line ever written in the history of children’s literature.”

The Bookman says this book should be compulsory reading for all booksellers, librarians, publishers and teachers. In fact by all readers!

About the author/illustrator from his website:

Lane Smith has written and illustrated a bunch of stuff. Most recently Madam President and John, Paul, George & Ben which were both New York Times and Publishers Weekly best-sellers.
His titles with Jon Scieszka have included the Caldecott Honor winner The Stinky Cheese Man; The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs; Math Curse; and Science Verse.
Lane's other high profile titles include Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! by Dr. Seuss and Jack Prelutsky; The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip by George Saunders; Big Plans by Bob Shea; and James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. In 1996 Lane served as Conceptual Designer on the Disney film version of James and the Giant Peach.

Lane also wrote and illustrated the retro, cult favs The Happy Hocky Family and The Happy Hocky Family Moves to the Country.
Like the Hocky family, he and book designer Molly Leach live in a little town in the country.

Left - Lane Smith & Molly Leach

US readers of this blog should note that in the US the title is published by Roaring Brook Press.