Esta es la historia de Enrique, un niño al que le encantan los libros, pero no como a cualquier niño pueden gustarle. Un día, mientras tenía en una mano una paleta y en la otra un libro, Enrique, distraídamente, probó el libro. Notó que le gustaba, y aunque tenía sus dudas decidió comerse primero una palabra, luego una oración y, después, una página, luego de un par de días se había comido un libro entero. Inexplicablemente el conocimiento que contenían los libros llegaba al cerebro de Enrique, y pensó que con esto en poco tiempo podría ser la persona más lista del mundo, pero de pronto todo empezó a complicarse...Tomado de: http://goo.gl/XinIgI

One day, accidentally, Henry tastes a book. He thought it tasted pretty good so he tried some more. He eats a letter, a word, a sentence, and then a whole book! Before you know it Henry has consumed hundreds of thousands of books. He becomes smarter with each book he eats. Then he slowly but surely becomes sick and all that he's learned becomes too confusing for him to even communicate with others. Henry seriously wants to become the smartest person in the world but how can he possibly be able to do that now?

I loved the backgrounds and illustrations from this book. Jeffers gave texture in his images. I liked the way everything seemed to be scrapbooked together at times. The end of the cover and last few pages even had what seems to be bite marks which I thought was genius. The story itself was okay. I felt it was kind of a bit predictable. The plot is a fun one - very much a good story to tell young readers. Even if it didn't shock or thrill me I can see many young readers enjoying Henry's tale. ( )

I really enjoyed reading this book for many reasons. Like all of Jeffers' books, the illustrations are stunning and captivating. Jeffers' art has a major contribution to his books, drawing the reader into the story. One unique example of this is in the back of the book, where Jeffers chose to take a bite sized shape off of the corner of the book. I found this feature fun and interactive for readers of all ages. This book in particular has a unique story of a boy, Henry, eating books and gaining the knowledge from the books. I really enjoyed the plot of this book and the unique tone and mood set by Jeffers. There is a fairly serious tone making the plot seem realistic, the tone is also complimented by the monotone colors in the illustrations. I found the serious tone to be very interesting for the playful, fictional plot. One of the main bigger picture purposes of this book is to prove that there are no "easy ways" out of reading, as shown by Henry's eventual loss of knowledge. This book also shows an important maturation in Henry and his relationship with books. ( )

Fantastic - not sure I like boys who eat books about goldfish. ( )

Henry loved books. Specifically, he loved to eat them. The more he ate the tasty tomes, the smarter he got. Until the day, that is, that the knowledge he was ingesting began to become a little mixed, and he began to feel a little ill as a result of his unusual diet. Following the advice of parents, doctors and librarians, he stopped scarfing down books, but subsequently found life a bit dull and flat. What could he do...?

READ!!! (of course!) Although I saw the ending of The Incredible Book Eating Boy coming from a ways off, and fully expected to find in its pages a paean to the beauty and joy of reading, I still found the process of getting to the conclusion quite enjoyable. The story here is humorous and engaging, offering an oblique exploration of how we consume books and other media amidst all the hilarity. There's something to be said for taking our time when we read, rather than rushing to read everything we can, without pausing to truly mull it over. I appreciated that Jeffers managed to work that message into his book, without resorting to any overt didactic display. The illustrations were every bit as appealing as the story, making use of textual collage elements in ways that reminded me of the artist's work for his subsequent A Child of Books. Recommended to fellow Jeffers fans, and to anyone looking for children's stories that address how we approach books and knowledge. ( )