This Book Is Spineless
This Book Is Spineless … and wary … and absolutely unadventurous, and is freaking out about what story might be on its pages. The book takes the reader on a journey of its fears, navigating the book’s possible contents together. With each page turn, the book becomes a bit braver. This multilayered book incorporates the five senses, multiple literary genres, and various book parts, with the relationship between book and reader bringing everything together.
Download the This Book Is Spineless Activity Guide
Praise
“In this worthy descendant of Jon Stone’s classic Monster at the End of this Book, a pusillanimous picture book entreats readers to stop turning its pages—at least, at first. It opens with one of the finest page turns ever as the nervous narrator’s ‘In fact, I’m on edge whenever you turn a page’ precedes a huge, authentically scream-inducing, swirly black monster skull … An ingenious, interactive invitation into realms of story and ways of reading.” — Booklist, 
Starred review
“Leslie’s witty, fast-paced narrative and Brereton’s digital paintings work well together to create a self-referential narrative that introduces young readers to different literary genres, compositions cleverly including those story elements the book is not scared of, till by the end it seems to have grown a spine—maybe. A playful, interactive story that will urge readers to be brave and turn the page.” — Kirkus
“Clever illustration effects (the odor from a “whiffy wolverine or stinky skunk” makes the pages appear to curl) and the anxious book-as-character combine to create a winning story about handling the unknown and asking for help.” — Publisher’s Weekly
“An engaging adventure for early elementary readers.” — School Library Journal
“Lindsay Leslie’s This Book is Spineless has the most imaginative approach to overcoming fears.” — Lisa K. Joyce, BookPage
