‘Bookaboo’ Needs A Story (From A Celebrity) A Day — Or He Just Can’t Play!

Bookaboo is a dog. He’s also a drummer in a rock band. But there’s a problem: He needs a story a day or he just can’t play. So, Bookaboo retreats to his tour bus until a celebrity shows up to read a book with him.

The concept is a bit complicated, but the show — now streaming on Amazon — is quite simple. An American iteration of a British show, Bookaboo is essentially a celebration of reading with comedic interludes featuring our eponymous hero and his bandmates, Paws and Growler. The pups are puppets. The celebrities are themselves. The books are real books. The illustrations become lightly animated as actors, athletes, and musicians read aloud.

The series premiere opens with Bookaboo trying to find a Halloween costume when Selma Blair (yes, that Selma Blair) stops by the tour bus to find out why the drummer hasn’t taken the stage for his concert. He agrees to play after she offers a very spirited reading of Princess Daisy and the Dragons and the Nincompoop Knights. In the second segment, Bookaboo is overcoming his fear of Halloween when Guillermo Díaz (Scandal) shows up in a turkey costume to read a story about a barnyard animal who wants to go trick-or-treating. Special guests include athletes like Pittsburgh Steeler Antonio Brown and figure skater Patrick Chan, actors from New Girl and House of Cards, and astronaut and YouTube sensation Commander Chris Hadfield, who reads his very own book about a young would-be astronaut who’s afraid of the dark.

While a show about celebrities reading books to a puppet — and to the audience — is no substitute for a parent or caretaker reading to a child, this is a sweet little show for preschoolers. The humor is gentle and the books are well-chosen, and Bookaboo’s enthusiasm for a good story might just inspire families to read together more.

[Watch Bookaboo on Prime Video]

Jessica Jernigan is a writer, editor, and mom-about-town in a mid-sized Midwestern city. You can find her professional website here, but Instagram is where the cat photos are.