Common Sense Media Review
By Susan Faust
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
A wild reverie combats one boy's boredom, steampunk-style.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 5+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
What's the Story?
In THE MOST BORING BOOK EVER, the story unfolds in simple declarative sentences. "A boy sat in a chair. That's it. He just sat in the chair. Sitting in chairs is boring." Dressed in Victorian era clothes and living in a town with cobblestones, tile roofs, and turrets, the boy thinks about clouds, birds, laundry, and math homework. All of them are "boring." Meanwhile, the illustrations tell a greatly expanded story. In elaborate scenes, the boy is catapulted skyward in his chair, bedecked with Viking-style horns. He encounters propellered flying machines, piloted by a rowdy bunch engaged in an explosive battle. He comes upon a fire-breathing dragon in the clouds. He tangles with a clothes line as he descends to earth, and faces some math homework too, that might just save him from a too-hard landing. On returning to the ground, the boy is in for a surprise. A boring one, of course.
Is It Any Good?
The rather hollow "I'm bored" complaint, declared by some kids, gets a clever, steampunk smack-down in this action-packed, imaginative picture book. The Most Boring Book Ever focuses on a bored boy in Victorian-style clothes and living in a European Old World town as he journeys skyward in a wooden chair with Viking-style horns for decoration. Brandon Sanderson's deadpan text doesn't begin to hint at Kazu Kibuishi's extravagantly-illustrated scenes. The boy encounters in mid-air a fanciful battle of flying car-like machines, a fire-breathing dragon, a tangled descent, and finally a hard landing. The tongue-in-cheek humor is more sophisticated than the picture book format suggests, but it gently skewers the idea that a child should ever truly be bored when their imagination is always at the ready. This book could be an entry point for more involved sci fi novels in the years to come.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about The Most Boring Book Ever and think about what the word "boring" means. Have you ever been bored? When? Why?
If you have ever been bored, what did you do about it? If you are bored, what might you do? Did this book give you new ideas?
Some scenes in the book display wild imagination. Do you like to draw or paint? Do you like to focus on the real world or your own imaginings?
The boy (in his imagination) perseveres and thinks his way through a big challenge -- not falling to his death -- by doing some quick math as he's falling. When have you had to figure something out by thinking it through? What happened?
Book Details
- Author :
- Illustrator : Kazu Kibuishi
- Genre : Picture Book
- Topics : Fantasy ( Dragons , Magic )
- Character Strengths : Perseverance
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Roaring Brook Press
- Publication date : September 24, 2024
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 4 - 8
- Number of pages : 48
- Available on : Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Last updated : March 6, 2026
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