Module 1: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce

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

Mr. Morris Lessmore has always been a bibliophile, his own life a story to be played out.  As with most stories, Mr. Lessmore encounters a storm in his life (quite literally), and the rhyme and reason he is thrown into chaos.  He loses his way, his life becoming a hopeless expanse of gray despair.  Luckily, he comes upon a lady who shares with him the book that reacquaints him with his passion for reading and ultimately saves his life. 

Impressions and opinion of the book- 

The adjective "fantastic" does not do this work justice.  Anyone who has an affinity for books will instantly relate to and fall in love with Mr. Lessmore, his books, and the girl who saves him.  Anyone who has yet to discover how amazing books are will finish the book with a yearning to find that one that speaks to them. 

I was first introduced to Mr. Lessmore, ironically, as many people were, when he stole our hearts on the screen in the Academy Award-winning animated short based upon the not yet published book.  Tragedy befell William Joyce and many others in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit.  The book he had been working on was put aside during these trying times, and amazingly, the movie version was completed first.  Both versions work and are alluring in their own ways.

The beautiful thing about the book version is that it is an homage to the very form it is in, highlighting in more ways than one how a book can literally save us from difficult times in our lives.  Joyce's illustrations are exquisite, and his use of color helps convey emotional highs and lows within the book.  The tornado scene at the beginning is reminiscent of a similar scene in The Wizard of Oz, bringing to mind the innovative technique used in the classic movie where Kansas is black and white and Oz is full of color. In this case, a world without books is dreary place to be.

Books literally come to life in this story, and words float across the page.  Mr. Lessmore and his books maintain a symbiotic relationship, their words sustaining him, and his reading of the words keeping the books alive.  There is even a moment in the book where Mr. Lessmore is repairing a book, stethoscope in hand, while the other books in the library nervously stand by.

Perhaps the most endearing thing about the book is the final page, for it is at this moment that the story of Mr. Lessmore becomes the book being read by the reader, making the reader an integral part of the story.  In essence, as was the case with Mr. Lessmore, the book is alive because of the reader, and the reader is alive because of the book, therefore continuing the cycle and making it a personal one.

Full-Text Review 

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. By William Joyce. Illus. by William Joyce and Joe Bluhm. July 2012. 56p.Atheneum, $17.99 (9781442457027). Gr. 1–3. 

First it was an Academy Award–winning animated short. Then it was an intuitively interactive iPad story app. And now it’s a regular old book, which is fitting given that the story is all about the lasting power of books to transport and nourish the soul. Our hero is a bibliophile modeled after legendary children’s-literature advocate William Morris (in spirit) and Buster Keaton (in looks), whose gray-colored world is colorized when he sees a woman fly past, pulled by “a festive squadron of flying books.” One such book leads him to take custodianship of a house full of rambunctious stories. As the years pass, he writes one of his own, which in turn inspires a young girl after he is gone. The message-heavy narrative is lifted by Joyce’s superb artwork, presenting nostalgic, picket-fence scenes with a modeled, dimensional feel built on the animation but given a lustrous polish for the printed page. Perhaps most fascinating, the movie, app, and book taken together present an entirely kid-friendly opportunity to talk about the interplay between content and format. —Ian Chipman

Chipman, I. (2012). The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. Booklist, 108(21), 70.

Library Uses

I suppose the most obvious use for this book would be as a beginning of the year read aloud to open up a conversation about reading and why books are important and what kinds of books bring students to life.  Perhaps allowing them to imagine what kinds of books they would want to keep them company if their books could really walk and interact with them would give some insight as to what kinds of literature interests them.

Because the story comes in multiple formats, each of which is relatively short, it would also be a great source to use when comparing books to their movie versions and what are the benefits of telling the story in each version, why are certain choices made to change things in each version, and which version is more appealing to students.  Also discussing how it's okay for their to be a difference in opinion on which version students prefer could lead to discussions on how we learn things differently and might find one format more helpful to us than another.  (Personally, while I normally would pick the book over the movie in most instances, this is one when I'd be hard pressed to choose one over the other.  This might actually be another conversation worth having with students).

A possible makerspace that could extend from this discussion would be to have the supplies necessary for students to make their own movie adaptations of a picturebook they have read.

Giving students the opportunity to learn about William Joyce and the situation that delayed the publishing of the book would be a beneficial lesson that things don't always go as planned, but we can work through tough times and still come out okay.  For older readers and writers, there might even be a place to point out that sometimes, the darkest moments in our lives bring the greatest inspirations.

There will be no shortage of uses for William Joyce's The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.  It is a fantastic work indeed.