The Fantastic Flying Books of Mister Morris Lessmore

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mister Morris Lessmore by William Joyce

While this is a picture book, which is not normally what I choose to review, I can’t help but love this book and wanted to share it with other like-minded book lovers. My daughter and I have checked this out of the public library at least 5 times in the last year and I have the app on my iPad that animates the book for you. This habit has prompted my husband to ask me why I haven’t broken down and purchased the book yet. I have no real answer for him other than not thinking about it when doing book shopping.

I recently decided to read this to the Novels class I am teaching this year to prime them for what books offer us. The story takes the central character, Mr. Morris Lessmore, on a fantastic journey through the pages of books.

As we open this story, we are greeted with words that many bibliophiles live by and dream of people saying: “Morris Lessmore loved words. He loved stories. He loved books.” Morris Lessmore lived his life as a story. He would open his book every day and “write of his joys and sorrows, of all that he knew and everything that he hoped.”

However, as the book tells us, “every story has its upsets.” A terrible storm comes along and blows apart Lessmore’s world. It scatters the pages of his book to the four corners. Not knowing what to do, he wanders. While he wanders, he meets a flying book that leads him to a building where it appeared the books “nested.”  Lessmore lived and cared for the books – reading them, lending them, and mending them – for the remainder of his life. All along, he continued writing in his own book. At the end of his life, his book joined the masses books within the “nest.”

I love this book and the message it brings. It shows how alive stories can be and how magical their stories can make our lives. I am not sure what else needs to be said. It is a must read, no matter how old you are.