The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers

I've been aware of Oliver Jeffers books for a while - I drooled over the beautiful iPad app for The Heart and the Bottle (and then I cried when I read the actual book... in Asda), and both my boys love Lost and Found, but for some reason I'd never seen The Incredible Book Eating Boy. Another parent recommended it to me in the library and I'm so glad she did because we all loved it.

Henry loves books, but he loves to eat them rather than read them. But he soon finds that he's literally ingesting knowledge and getting smarter and smarter the more books he reads. But then he eats so many books it makes him sick. And he realises that he's not been digesting the books properly and all the knowledge is getting mixed up in his head. So he stops eating books and, eventually, decides to try reading them instead.

I love everything about this book. I wasn't sure at first if my 7-year-old would like the fairly dark illustrations, but he loved them - particularly the one of Henry throwing up (typical). I love the message of the book, which manages to be both blindingly obvious and oddly subtle at the same time. This is a book all book lovers should own (but not eat).