The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Author: William Joyce

Illustrator: William Joyce & Joe Bluhm 

Date Published: 2012 

About the book: William Joyce has been working on The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore since 1999. The story began as a tribute to the late Bill Morris, the soft-spoken, dry-witted pioneer of library promotions. Then Hurricane Katrina devastated Mr. Joyce's home state and interrupted progress on the book. The author saw firsthand the curative power of stories as he visited displaced children reading donated books in the shelters. Unable to work for a long period of time because of eye surgeries, finishing the book took many paths. 

Summary: Mr. Morris Lessmore loved words. He loved stories. He loved books. But every story has its upsets. Everything in Morris Lessmore's life, including his own story, is scatted to the winds because of a storm. But the power of story will save the day. 

Genre: The genres of this book are fantasy and picturebook. "Fantasy is imaginative literature distinguished by characters, places, or events that could not happen in the real world. Animals can talk, inanimate objects have feelings, time follows the author's rules, and human accomplish superhuman feat (Galda, Cullinan, & Sipe. 2010, p.16) In the book, Morris Lessmore met a lady who was flying with the use of books. She then gave Morris a talking book with legs who took Morris to a place with many talking, flying books. Morris took care of the books and when he got old and crinkly, the books took care of Morris. These are impossible events as books cannot fly, talk, or take care of anyone. "Picturebook is a format in which picture and text are interdependent."  (Galda, Cullinan, & Sipe. 2010, p.16) On every page of the book, there are pictures or illustration. These illustrations are appropriate as they give meaning and clarity to the author's work. 

Illustration: 
   

The illustrations are a combination of subdued and saturated colors. The subdued colors were used to illustrate the disaster that happened in the book and other small illustrations. However, saturated colors are more prevalent in the book. The techniques the illustrators used seems to be drawing and painting.  The illustrations painted a beautiful picture of the story and accompany the text really well. The elements of visual art are identifiable in the illustrators work and are uniquely used.

Motivational Activity: 

• Activity 1 - Imagine that you are Mr. Morris Lessmore. In your own words, describe what you would do after a bad storm that destroyed and scatted everything in your life. What precautions would you take before the storm? where would you go? what would you do? How do you think people feel when a storm come and destroy their homes? How would you feel?

• Activity 2 - Imagine that a ‘festive squadron of flying books’ could carry you into the air. Where might they take you? Write a story about the adventure that you would have. 

Personal Opinion: Best sellers and award winning books are very good. It shows that reputable individuals have read and evaluated the book and deemed it worthy of an award in it's category. I like this book because it meets those criteria and some. It is also an academy award winning animated short film. I definitely would recommend this book to others. It teachers the power of books and the love for reading which every child should know and acquire.  I love that the book is easy to read and wonderfully illustrated. 

Other books by the Author: 

• The Man in the Moon.
• The Guardian Series 
• Rolie Polie Olie 
• The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs 

References: 

Joyce, W., & Bluhm, J. (2012). The fantastic flying books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.  

Galda, L., Cullinan, B. E., & Sipe, L. R. (2010). Literature and the child (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore. (2015). Retrieved April 02, 2016, from http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/library/books/the-fantastic-flying-books-of-morris-lessmore