Book

Books contain countless tales—but what if Book told its own story? From clay tablets to e-readers, here is a quirky, kid-friendly look at the book.

Books are one of humankind’s greatest forms of expression, and now Book, in a witty, idiosyncratic voice, tells us the inside story. A wonderfully eccentric character with strong opinions and a poetic turn of phrase, Book tells of a journey from papyrus scrolls to medieval manuscripts to printed paper and beyond—pondering, along the way, many bookish things, including the evolution of the alphabet, the library (known to Egyptians as "the healing place of the soul"), and even book burning. With bold, black-and-white illustrations by Neil Packer, Book is a captivating work of nonfiction by one of England's leading poets.

John Agard is a poet, playwright, and children’s writer. Born in Guyana, where his love of language grew out of listening to sports commentaries on the radio, he now lives in East Sussex, England, with his partner, the poet Grace Nichols, and their daughter.

Neil Packer is the illustrator of several classic books, including One Hundred Years of Solitude, as well as Gillian Cross’s magnificent retellings of The Odyssey and The Iliad. Neil Packer lives in London with his son.