How to Live Forever - Colin Thompson

For: Kids
Published: 1995
Rating: 4 (oh, the illustrations!)
Read: Mar. 7, 2009 Borders
Endpapers: Creamy yellow
$16.99

Gone with the Wine. The Ice Man Cometh. The Merchant of Guiness. A Tale of Two Sitars. Lady Chatterly's Pullover. Warhol and Peace. A Prune with a View. These are some of the books on the shelves of a library with one thousand rooms - and a copy of every book ever written. At night, when the library is closed, the shelves come to life. Families live in the books, they become homes with lights and windows and doors,. Shelves are joined together to create cities. And in a cookery book entitled Quinces lives Peter and his dog Brian.

Peter discovers that the book How to Live Forever has disappeared. He and Brian hunt for it night after night until, after a couple of years, they do find it. And a lesson is learned.

The story seems a bit rushed, but the illustrations are a joy to behold. Books and tiny little details fill the pages. In a bit of browsing on the internet, it looks like the book may have had some sort of publishing in Australia where the story seems different. It speaks of a grandfather. The story I read even mentions a serious sister when introducing Peter's family, but no mention of her is ever heard again. So the story certainly could have been stronger. But oh, those illustrations - - - -an amazingly illustrated book.