Educational Media Reviews Online

The VHS animated version of The Girl Who Hated Books is based on Manjusha Pawagi’s first picture book written in 1998. It cleverly focuses on the reluctant reader by telling the story of a little girl named Meena who detests reading books and complains that they get in the way because her house is overflowing with them. Even though Meena objects to reading, her parents continue to encourage her to read and continue to add more books to the out of control collection because of their love for reading. The house becomes so cluttered that one day she ends up looking for her missing cat, Max, and finds him purring on a heap of books. As she attempts to rescue him from the top, they begin tumbling to the floor. Popular characters like the Three Little Pigs come to life by popping out and scattering about. The room suddenly becomes a chaotic mess of lost picture book characters unable to get back into their own story filled pages.

The cassette’s audio and video are of high quality, but differ slightly from the book format regarding artwork and tone. Illustrations tend to be more humorous and are presented as one-dimensional drawings versus the detailed water colored illustrations in the book version created by Leanne Franson. The video includes appealing discussion questions that will engage students in a variety of language arts activities and provide imaginative ways to integrate cultural diversity. The video is a part of the National Film Board of Canada’s Talespinners 2 collection and would be a fantastic addition to any public library or as a part of a children’s literature collection to complement the elementary classroom or teacher education program.