I'm going to first note that I didn't really like the book. I don't know if it was because I was still sleepy when I read it or if it was because I'm not used to trying to think about young children's stories analytically, but I was having trouble connecting with the book or picking out themes that I thought would be compelling for student work. On a basic level, I think it does provide a reasonable opportunity to ask children to work on language comprehension, to communicate with their teacher and peers by explaining what they see happening as the book is read. There is also the main point that the main character of the book starts out hating to read, but then ends up hating to stop reading. Have any of us or anyone we known had a similar experience where we didn't want to do something and then did it and liked it? When I was the age of the target group for this book I know this happened a lot. So at least it's relatable in this sense and does provide a topic for discussion/ ( )

Victor Dickens is a young boy who hates to read, but something magical happens on this particular day. Many of the characters jump out from the pages of the book and become his friends. This changes things for Victor. Students might be able to relate to Victor, either as non-readers or as readers that believe that the characters they read about become their friends. ( )

Victor hates to read, but one night characters literally pull him into the story. A crocodile, parrot, rabbit and others tweak his curiosity until finds himself unable to put the book down!