Mac Barnett and Adam Rex are an utterly brilliant and winning combination. The two walk the reader through the process of making a book: "At first this book wasn't a book. It was an idea." From there, the story of how this book was made has wildly imaginative and fantastic elements (arm-wrestling a tiger), mixed in with a pretty solid explanation of how a picture book actually does get made: drafts, editing ("I love this! This is perfect! Now, here are all the things you have to change"), finding an illustrator, printing the art and text together (in Malaysia), shipping it back to the U.S. (interrupted by a pirate attack), until finally, finally (at this point Mac has a very long beard, from all the waiting), the book "still isn't a book, not really, until it has a reader. And then you came along."

I have to say, my favorite page is the one "It took the illustrator a very long time to draw all the pictures for this book. I don't know what he was doing that whole time, but he must have been working very hard." The illustrations that accompany this show Adam sleeping, sitting on the floor tossing cards into a top hat, and sleeping again. ( )

This book is adorable. I love the meta-narrative and the illustrations are amazing. I love Mac Barnett already, and after I realized that Adam Rex did the Chu books with Neil Gaiman ([b:Chu's Day|15727792|Chu's Day (Chu, #1)|Neil Gaiman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1350289203s/15727792.jpg|21405742]) and [b:Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem|6281383|Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem|Mac Barnett|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1360576235s/6281383.jpg|6465332] (also writter by Mac Barnett), it turned out that I already like him too. Very cute. ( )

This is the semi-true story of how books are made, from writing to ending up on bookshelves, waiting for readers. It ends by including the reader in the process and having everyone waiting for the reader. ( )

I liked the book How This Book Was Made written by Marc Barnett for a few reasons. Firstly, I enjoyed how the story is based on a true story but has outrageous events that occur. For example, a tiger stands up on two legs and texts on his phone, a tiger reads a book, King Kong is on the empire state building, pirates attack a shipment of books, dogs play poker, books grow beards, and Benjamin Franklin hangs on top of a building, despite being deceased. In this book, Barnett writes about the importance of the writing process as well as the actual process that a book goes through before it is published. He embellishes it with hyperboles and humor to further entice the readers. I love that he adds all of the humor, because I find myself laughing throughout the book and wanting to read more work by the same author. I like that this book is both informative and entirely made up.
Another reason I enjoyed this book is that I loved the detail that went into the illustrations that Adam Rex so eloquently made. The endpapers in the book for example, are tiger stripes as the personified tiger shows up in multiple parts of the book as he is texting, arm wrestling with the author, reading books, and talking to the author. On two pages of the book, the entire page almost consists of all illustrations and no words. If one looks closely in the background, you’ll find silly and fictional characters. For example, on one page there is the talking tiger, a standing lizard, a cheeseburger with eyes and arms, a walking octopus, pterodactyls flying, a muffin with eyes and arms, and a bear holding a pitchfork. The first time I read the story, I paid little attention to the illustrations. When I read it the second time through, I realized the illustrations clearly enhance the story and make it even more humorous. Without the illustrations, the book would not be as interesting, and therefore not entice readers to continue reading.
I believe the main idea of this story was to explain what a writer goes through from beginning stages of planning, to the end stages of publishing a book. The author and illustrator decided to throw fantasy and humor into the book in order to easily convey the process of writing. ( )

Very fun story for this author to read to his kids. Nice that the long process of book creation can be broken down for children & be entertaining for all.

PS to the author: How about a sequel about teaching pirates to read so they'll know real treasures when they find them? ( )