This book is so fun! The title is perfect and the illustrations are beautiful and well-done. The story is about bedtime storytelling--something kids, parents, and other caregivers can relate to. It's clever (look for clues in the illustrations!), sweet (especially the resolution), and funny (don't forget the job applications at the end!). My kids and I ADORED it!

A delightful little read with some adorable illustrations. Thoroughly enjoyed this and would read more from this author.

Help Wanted: Must Love Books is a delightful read and really resonated with my children and me. It captures one of our favourite times of the day - the bedtime story routine and it is also a great reminder for us parents of the impacts our busy schedules can have on our kids. Love the bold and striking illustrations and the cameos of all those fairytale characters, which the kids really enjoyed and found so entertaining. This book would be a great segue to then read some of these fairy tale stories. The Help Wanted signs and resumes at the end were an excellent touch and very funny.

Help Wanted: Must Love Books is such a charming book that both parents and kids will enjoy reading and one that I wouldn’t grow tired of reading. I would happily recommend this book to family and friends.

Thanks to Netgalley and Capstone for providing an advanced copy for review.

This is an incredibly cute book, which me and my goddaughter really enjoyed reading together. It really reminded both of us how important this small amount of time reading together really is. The illustrations fitted the mood of the book perfectly and the father daughter relationship was so heartwarming. The humour caused many giggles while reading and I will definitely be picking up a physical copy with its release. No criticisms needed.

Bedtime is the best! And the best part of bedtime for little Shailey is story time with her dad… That is, until Shailey’s dad gets a new job and story time is no longer a priority. Fed up with missed stories. Shailey fires her dad and sets out to her a new bedtime storyteller. A hilarious cast of fairytale characters apply for the position… none of which is just right… until the last one shows up, her dad! They decide that electronics and work stuff don’t belong at story time and Shailey has her favourite story teller back!

This book was fun and sweet! I almost felt that the moral of the story was aimed at the parents this time, instead of the child audience. Parents need to set aside technology and other distractions and take time to read with their kids.

I read this book with my 5 and 8 year old daughters. We all enjoyed the illustrations and loved the cameos of a the fairytale characters. My 8 year old did not like how Shailey treated her father when she fired him. She also indicated that she’d never fire me. How sweet. Overall we all recommend this book, fun for kids and a good reminder for the adults!

Help Wanted, Must Love Books by Janet Sumner Johnson is due to release March 2nd, 2020.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Capstone Editions through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

#HelpWantedMustLoveBooks #NetGalley

So adorable for any book lover! Nothing better than a good bedtime reader to help you go to sleep :)

In this book Shailey is sick of her dad being too tired after work to read her a bed time story and so she sets about interviewing all of the fairytale characters from the ginger bread man, Hook, Goldilocks, Snow White and her dwarfs and more!



All about appreciating your family and the joys of sharing a bed time story it was a great book and with lovely illustrations to bring it to life.



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

Shailey loves bedtime and her special routine of reading books with her dad. Unfortunately, dad is busy these days with a new job that keeps him on the phone and computer a lot so she has no choice but to fire him as her bedtime storyteller.

When Shailey places a help wanted ad, she is surprised by the quirky fairy tale applicants who arrive for an interview. She has some strict requirements that no one seems to meet and between Sleeping Beauty falling asleep on the job and the Gingerbread Man stealing her books, it seems Shailey may never find a suitable replacement for her dad. Can father and daughter work together to continue a solid bedtime routine?

This is such a cute story for both young readers and adults thanks to the familiar characters. The illustrations are excellent and will hold the attention of emerging readers, the sentences are simple and easy to follow for young readers. I appreciate that this story shows the importance of sharing time and developing a routine with children to nurture a love of reading.

Thanks to Capstone and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Help Wanted: Must Love Books is scheduled for release on March 2, 2020.

This was a really fun story.
I loved how the author pulled characters from traditional bedtime stories into this book.
The illustrations were cute, but felt like they could have been more?
I can't even say what was missing for me in the illustrations.
The addition of some applicants resumes at the end was really cute.
I think that was one of my favourite parts.
Thank you NetGalley and Capstone for my DRC.

A lovely short story which introduces us to a daughter who still wants a bedtime story, even though he Dad has a new job and is now too busy. She interviews a whole host of fairy tale character, who she knows through the stories she has already shared with her Dad. None are quite right, until the final one....I will not spoil who this is. A lovely book which will make you smile.

Help Wanted, Must Love Books by Janet Sumner Johnson tells the story of Shailey whose dad used to be her bedtime storyteller until he got a new job. Now she is on the hunt for a recruit.

Shailey is a bright and determined young child who posts a job announcement and begins interviewing fairy tale characters. She has to revise her job advertisement each time a new character applies as they either fall asleep, leave dirty fingerprints on her books, or scare her.

Help Wanted is a delightful book with incredible illustrations. The story was perfect with great imagination and provided a valid lesson for parents to put down their electronic devices and be present for their children.

What I loved and thought brilliant was how the author weaved the characters and synopses of bedtime stories into this story.

Thank you @CapstonePub and #NetGalley for the advance copy. #HelpWantedMustLoveBooks

Oh my goodness. This book was adorable. It shows how creative children can be and how the little things we do with them are very enjoyable to them. Shailey loves bed time stories with her dad but when his work gets in the way of that she decided to take matters into her own hands and hire someone else for the job. She soon finds that it’s not so easy to find the right fit.
the story shows us that children do love the time we spend with them and that we should try to get more time away from screens and work to make more time for memories.
The illustrations were bright and beautiful and the storybook characters were all funny and with their own personalities.
Definitely a 5 star book.

This is a cute story with some great illustrations. I loved how diverse the book was in terms of characters.

Such a fun and sweet book. Shailey is on the look for a new storyteller after her dad gets a new job and can't read to her anymore. Thus begins a parade of applicants...from Snow White to Cinderella, to Captain Hook to the Gingerbread Man. I loved it! Especially fun was the resumes of some of the applicants :)

The premise of this book is pretty cute. However, it's also one of those that seems to be directing winks at the parents, and that becomes problematic on one particular page when it assumes that its audience is more mature and educated than it actually is.

Shailey and her dad read a bedtime story every night. But when her dad gets a new job, he's suddenly too busy to read anymore. So Shailey fires him and puts out an ad for a new bedtime story reader. She gets plenty of applicants, but there's something wrong with all of them. Goldilocks is obsessed with the comfort of the seating. Sleeping Beauty can't stay awake. The Three Little Pigs get frightened off by the Big Bad Wolf before they even have a chance to interview. It isn't until a somewhat familiar face shows up and applies for the job that Shailey finds the perfect candidate.

I don't have much of a problem with all that. The résumés at the back are cute, too (even if much of what's in them will go over readers' heads). But there's one candidate that just didn't work. Or, I should say, Shailey's reaction didn't work. The candidate is a giant. A very human-looking giant who just happens to be very large. But rather than using the opportunity to make a statement about differences not being inherently negative, the book shows Shailey being afraid, and subsequently changing her ad to read: "Human applicants only." Now, I understand that giants are often viewed as fictional creatures, but this particular giant looked pretty real. He was simply very large. When I read Shailey's revised ad, I cringed, because it seems to endorse being afraid of differences and also discriminating based on size... as well as implying that giants aren't human. Because there are very real medical conditions that can cause people to grow unusually large, this book has the potential to fuel bigotry, and potentially even bullying. I'd hate to see kids read this and then turn around and taunt their larger peers with: "Not human!"

So I can't wholeheartedly endorse this one. Perhaps Shailey's problem with the giant applicant could've been a more practical one (e.g., "Must be able to fit in our rocking chair.") or the candidate could've been changed altogether. As it is, though, I feel uncomfortable with a book that promotes discrimination based on size, going so far as to imply someone is not human because of it. The illustrations are cute, otherwise, and the resolution to the story makes perfect sense. Maybe with a bit of tweaking, this book could avoid a potentially problematic issue and be a cute fairy tale-based read.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Capstone Publishing for the ARC. I am voluntarily reviewing this book. What a cute book! I loved it. Th HE story is unique and the graphic bright colorful and engaging. I think most kids would enjoy, maybe leans more towards girls. 5 stars

This humor-filled picture book shows what antics ensue when a young daughter fires her too busy dad from reading books at bedtime. With clipboard in hand, Shailey begins interviewing applicants promptly at 6:30pm. Author Janet Sumner Johnson gathers together a rag-tag group of classic storybook characters eager for employment. No one’s right for the job until a vaguely familiar prospective employee arrives.

Don’t miss the delightful and inspiring character profiles at the end of the story.

Wry humor and classic characters just might land parents the job of reading Help Wanted, Must Love Books again and again.

This is a wonderful book. Shailey loves bedtime because it was when her father reads to her, but his new job interferes so she needs to find a new reader.

It’s great that Shailey and her father are people of color. The fact that the father could be a single parent is important as well. It’s wonderful that while the job is never detailed, the father is involved in something that requires books and electronics. With just these details the story does much in the way of representation.

When Shailey interviews various replacement readers, Johnson and Dawson get clever. The people interviewed are those from fairy tales (which appear to be Shailey’s favorite book), and they are diverse. Snow White is the traditional looking Snow White, the dwarves are mixed in terms of skin color and gender. Sleeping Beauty is a person of color as is Hook. The three little pigs are still pigs, but one is girl. It is a nice variety.

The use of the fairy tales allows Johnson and Dawson to get creative. The way each character applies fits the source story, and Shailey’s increasing response to the applicants – she keeps redrafting her help wanted sign – show the power of words and meaning.

It’s a wonderful book.

Review to come February 2020 (wow so long still before that happens) on my blog/Goodreads.

I received this picture book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

A little girl who LOVES bedtime stories needs a new storyteller when her dad works so hard he just falls asleep early on in the evening or when he is too hard at work. Instead of wallowing she fires her dad (yes, really) and then starts hunting for new people to tell stories to her. I just loved her posting a poster to find a new storyteller and then adding more and more to it as the day grew long (seeing the additions to the poster were tons of fun especially since the girl kept it colourful).

I have to say I didn't expect the applicants to be THAT or be about THAT. So that was a fun surprise, I won't spoil anything as I want people to be surprised as well. I enjoyed seeing what kind of people who apply and what kind of skills they had. Not to mention, I wanted to know if the little girl would find someone to tell her stories at bedtime.

The ending was just the sweetest, that was the best applicant, but yeah, there needs to be some conditions for it to work out. :P

Oh, and the CVs from the ones who applied in the book were just a wonderful addition, really glad the author added those to the book. I had quite a laugh reading those.

I love the art it was just the cutest!

All in all, a very sweet bedtime story that I am sure will be loved by parents and children. Recommended!

This book is absolutely adorable. Shailey is upset because her dad is working too much, so she tries to hire someone to be her new bedtime story reader. She has many very interesting and hilarious applicants apply for the job. I read this with my 11 year old, and he really enjoyed it as well. I will definitely want to add this to my collection so I can read it to my second graders. They will love it! This is a cleverly written story, and I highly recommend it!