Folks, we live in an era of scam artists so if New in Town is just one of a million tiny answers to the question of how we create a new savvier generation, that’s good enough for me. An exceedingly clever, funny, eye-popping story about not falling for the words of silver tongued devils.
Review of the Day: A Tree for Mr. Fish by Peter Stein
August 12, 2021 by
Exceedingly simple with an equally simple message (message: Don’t be rude and loud) you wouldn’t expect A Tree for Mr. Fish to be as wackadoodle as it is. And yet, here we are.
Review of the Day: The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess by Tom Gauld
July 20, 2021 by
Smart fairytailing that’s tonally on point? More of this, please.
Review of the Day: Off-Limits by Helen Yoon
June 24, 2021 by
Writing, timing, art, and humor. What’s not to love? One thing’s for certain, though. Kids absolutely adore it, and that’s not the kind of thing you can fake.
Review of the Day: Ergo by Alexis Deacon, ill. Viviane Schwarz
June 2, 2021 by
It’s a treatise on philosophy as it relates to young children. It’s about escaping the confines of yourself and reaching out to others. And, most importantly, it’s a cute baby chicken picture book where 95% of the action takes place inside an egg.
31 Days, 31 Lists: 2020 Funny Picture Books
December 6, 2020 by
There wasn’t a whole lot to laugh at in 2020, that’s for sure. Yet a great big list of wonderfully funny picture books came out, and here are some of the best. A bit of much needed levity for the year.
Review of the Day: See the Cat by David LaRochelle, ill. Mike Wohnoutka
July 16, 2020 by
You can hand today’s book to a kid learning to read, absolutely. Just be warned that their read may be punctuated with interjections of a highly voluble nature. In other words, this is laugh-out-loud funny.
Review of the Day: Nerp! by Sarah Lynne Reul
May 21, 2020 by
You know those parents that get roped into reading to their kids’ preschool/Kindergarten/church group and walk aimlessly through libraries and bookstores in a hazy daze of barely contained fear? This book is for them. Guaranteed laughs, short content, and the kind of book I could see a kid demanding over and over again. Worth buying? “Yerp!”
Review of the Day: Snail Crossing by Corey R. Tabor
March 4, 2020 by
I’ve read snail picture books before, but few have plumbed their humor quite as well as Tabor has in “Snail Crossing”. Less a story of persistence than a lesson in karma, this may well be the first snail-adjacent picture book that has ever made me AND my kids laugh out loud for long periods of time. I can think of not better praise than that.
31 Days, 31 Lists: 2019 Funny Picture Books
December 6, 2019 by
Judging a picture book based on humor alone really comes down to the sense of humor of the reader. On that note, let me state clearly that the books you’ll see here were just the ones that highly amused ME this year.
Review of the Day: Mr. Nogginbody Gets a Hammer by David Shannon
September 6, 2019 by
I don’t know what it took to make Mr. Nogginbody come into the world, but whatever confluence of the planets allowed this madcap exercise in increasing hijinks to happen, I say let’s have more of it! In a sea of picture books that remain unmemorable five minutes after you’ve read them, Mr. Nogginbody hits the nail on the head. Hard.
Review of the Day: Pokko and the Drum by Matthew Forsythe
August 9, 2019 by
There’s something going on in this book. A wry, whipsmart, funny tale that actually may have a thing or two to say about female empowerment. Or not? It’s easy to read too much into this book, but I’d say it’s also just as easy to read into it everything that you need it to be. Intelligent writing for kids that will not just appeal but engage and entice.
Review of the Day: Crab Cake by Andrea Tsurumi
April 24, 2019 by
A book that effectively establishes normality, disrupts it with horror, and then assures the reader that normality can return. If Tsurumi’s previous picture book, Accident, was about taking responsibility for your mistakes, Crab Cake is about taking care of yourself when the mistake is not your own.
Review of the Day: The Happy Book by Andy Rash
March 13, 2019 by
You have other books about emotions that you love, I have no doubt, but seriously consider supplementing them with Rash’s latest. A loving little book unafraid to be happy, sad, angry, scared, and supremely good.
31 Days, 31 Lists: 2018 Funny Picture Books
December 7, 2018 by
This might be my favorite picture book list of the 31 Days, 31 Books countdown. How could it not be? Get ready for titles that’ll have the small fry howling in the aisles.
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