A review by robforteath
Bob the Book by David Pratt

5.0

What a lovely, warm-hearted, hilarious, touching book!

There are many characters in this book, both humans and books. The humans are perfectly fine, but of course it's the anthropomorphized book characters that bring this book to life. The multitude of different books each speak with a voice that is distinctive and completely how you know that specific book would speak.

If it was just a bunch of cleverly-written characters and crackling, funny dialogue, this would be worth reading. Fortunately, it is so much more than that. The hearts of the books and the humans are laid bare for us, taken apart and put back together. Again and again, a character's misconceptions of themselves, their worth, their relationships, are held up to the light. I can't remember ever reading a book with such relentless kindness.