It’s true you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but it is also true that the cover is why I bought this one. More precisely, I noticed the book and got interested because Oliver Jeffers did some illustration for it, and I love him.

Turns out it wasn’t just the cover that was interesting. It’s a story about an eight year old boy who runs away. It reads a bit like a fairy tale (there’s a talking dog, and things seem magical, but it all makes perfect story sense) but doesn’t have a simplistic happily every after ending. I’m not saying it’s all doom and misery, either — it isn’t — it’s sad and not-sad and has a clever little bit at the end that will seem like more a twist to younger readers, but works for older readers, too.

I suppose I should mention that this book’s intended audience is kids. Chapter book reading kids who can keep going for two hundred pages, which, as the Harry Potter phenomenon demonstrated, is actually a remarkable number of the under-thirteen as well as over-thirty set.

I enjoy Lane Smith’s illustrations (he illustrated The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip, among others). His images have interesting textures, without seeming overwrought. For this book they are quite pared down, in a simple but still comfortable and not stark way.

The real message in this cute and clever story is that books are awesome. Even though you don’t need a screen name or password to use them. Even though they don’t tweet or text. Even though you can’t make the characters fight.

It’s an illustrated children’s book — an older monkey introduces a younger jackass to the concept of “book” with a little help from his (actual, not peripheral) mouse. As with many wonderful children’s books, the audience shouldn’t be limited to kids. A book person of any age, especially a geeky one, will enjoy it. It’s funny.

Apparently it is catching some flack for the very last line, which [no real need for a spoiler alert here, don't worry] is: “It’s a book, Jackass.” Some people feel jackass (even when you are talking about an actual animal) is inappropriate for kids. Yes, Smith also means jackass in the not referencing the animal sense. So if you are terribly concerned that under-10s will learn the word jackass or the concept of word play from a book, I suppose you should keep this away from them.

I think that is ridiculous, and the people carrying on about it are being, well, jackasses.

The form factor and presentation say a children’s book (and the Library of Congress says “juvenile literature”) but this has a creepy vibe to it that is a bit at odds with that expectation. I think that is a good thing; the tilted, not quite right nature of the story and images worked for me. To be fair, they’d probably work for the right kind of kid, too.

Good children’s books aren’t just cutesy. They are disarming, so can reach deep and touch grownups who are open-minded enough to read them (think Shaun Tan’s The Red Tree), or are full of wry and not just laugh out loud humor (think The Very Persisten Gappers of Frip). I really liked this book, but I’m not saying it reaches the level of those two — they are two of my favorite books — though it is several steps in the direction of Frip.

The word play that drives the story (“Ian saw a bird soar overhead” “Ann saw a bird with a sore head”) lends itself to some gory but fun illustrations. (You really notice the red with the saturated colors.) The illustrations are handmade miniatures, photographed at interesting angles and depths of focus.

If you have an odd kid in your life, or know a grownup who was an odd kid, they might appreciate this book and its amusing story about overcoming boredom.

This was the third book for Jeffers, but the fourth of his I’ve read. (I started with The Great Paper Caper, then Lost and Found, and couldn’t wait to get my hands on his latest The Heart and the Bottle — reading in order isn’t necessary.)

The humor and absurdity is more overt in this book, the emotional resonance not nearly as strong. That’s okay; it’s fun. The artwork is unmistakably Jeffers, with his odd noses, textural collage details, but not quite this time penciled legs. This may be the best book to start with if you are sharing his work with an actual little kid, especially one who is not how interested they are going to be in books just yet.

Last year I fell in love with The Great Paper Caper and then Lost and Found so I started looking forward to the release of this book as soon as I heard about it.

This book has the things I loved about the those — the whimsy, the penciled stick legs, the ability to touch something real — and still has its own story tell. It is about curiosity, loss, making safe rational decisions that cut you off from your feelings, growing up, and getting your sense of wonder back.

It is a beautiful book, too. It does one of my favorite things for an illustrated children’s book — the paper dust jacket is different from the book’s cover. The colors and textures encouraged me to spend time on each page. The way Jeffers managed to evoke both a symbolic and anatomic heart was a neat feat, too.

Highly recommended, not just for kids.