Review - Wait!

Wait! (Books That Drive Kids CRAZY! #4)
by Beck & Matt Stanton
Date: 2018
Publisher: ABC Books
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: library

From the brilliant brains behind This Is a Ball, Did You Take the B from My _ook? and The Red Book comes a brand-new giggle-inducing bestseller!

For the Grown-Ups:

'Wait! Just wait!' You find yourself saying this all the time, right?

Well, we're sorry, but you're gonna hate this book!

This book is going to make you wait too. Once you and the kids start reading it, you can't do anything else until it's finished.

You'll just have to ... wait.

And the kids will love it!

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I figured I might as well finish this series, even though I really didn't like the last book, This Book Is Red, which could also be titled: How to Gaslight Your Kids. Wait! isn't quite as annoying or potentially damaging as This Book Is Red, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the first two books in the series, either.

Here, the premise is that once you start reading this book, you're not allowed to stop until you get to the end. You just have to wait, no matter how bored you are. (I don't know what the consequences for DNFing this one is. It's never specified.) This could be hard enough for kids, but the tables get turned when the adult reader starts to get bored too and wants to go off and do "adult" things (like the dishes). But, wait! They're not allowed to, either. So everybody's miserable together.

The overall idea for these books is okay, although I question whether This Book Is Red should be part of anyone's collection. The other three books aren't too bad, and if kids enjoy the gimmick, then I guess they could be fun reads. I don't know if I'd ever want to read them to kids, though, for fear they might become favourites. Never mind driving kids crazy; these books have the potential to drive adult readers a bit nuts, too.

Premise: 3/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 2/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall: 2.5 out of 5