As any parent knows, children’s books aren’t just for children. There are some books that grow more tedious with every reread, and there are others that continue to delight and surprise both parent and child.
Jon Agee is one of those children’s authors and illustrators that has a dry, caustic wit running through every book that kids and adults can appreciate.
Take, for instance, the premise of Nothing, in which Suzie Gump, the richest woman in town makes buying nothing the craze:
Soon the whole town was in a frenzy.
Nothing sold like nothing before!People quickly ran out of space.
In order to make room for nothing,
they had to get rid of something.
In Nothing, Agee makes a story about conspicuous consumption funny with his wit and expressive yet deadpan artistry.
Agee’s latest children’s book, My Rhinoceros, garnered some pretty high praise from the cranky king of children’s literature, Maurice Sendak, who called it a “genuine masterpiece” and went on to say: “Even better, every kid will love it.”
I wrote before about Agee’s book of tongue twisters, Orangutan Tongs, and recently learned that in addition to spoonerisms, Agee is equally obsessed with palindromes and has a series of books full of them.
Pick up Agee for some humor in your day!
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