As demonstrated by books like “The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs” and “The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales,” his collaborations with Jon Scieszka, author and illustrator Lane Smith has a wonderfully sardonic sense of humor that lends itself well to subversive children’s books. In his latest title, “It’s A Book,” Lane turns his humor to a pervasive cultural issue among the younger generation today: explaining the merits of a printed book — a property that can’t text or tweet. He explores the issues through two main characters: A monkey who’s trying to read, and a jackass who keeps interrupting him with questions and manages to condense to a page of “Treasure Island” into a Twitter-post length message, complete with emoticon.
Read The Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy’s discussion with Smith about his book.
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