If you don't mind getting used to a different program, I would recommend learning Publisher. Publisher is ideal for making books, while Word demonstrates some of the challenges you're describing. Word is more for letters and reports.

I'm not sure I entirely understand what the complaint is, but have you tried playing with the text wrapping and picture position options? It sounds like one of these settings may be something you don't want. Be sure to check out the advanced settings as well. Sometimes, Word gives me non-sensical text flow related to image placement, and I can fix it by switching the wrapping from square to tight (even though that shouldn't make the difference).

You might try uploading the Word file in question so we can see what it's doing.