The Book With No Pictures

On crisp white pages, in a large black font, listeners and readers are clued in: "Here is how books work: Everything the words say, the person reading the book has to say." Listeners will be tickled when adults say ridiculous things and then whine about it, as the text directs. Comic pacing and theatrics ensure a silly trip; visual cues keep (pictureless) pages lively.

Novak (from television's The Office) goes meta in this very funny text-only picture book. On crisp white pages, in a large black font, readers and listeners get clued in: "Here is how books work: Everything the words say, the person reading the book has to say." Chaos ensues. Listeners will be tickled by hearing adults say ridiculous things -- "I am a monkey who taught myself to read" -- and then whine about it, as directed by the text: "Hey! I'm not a monkey!" They'll be rolling on the floor by the time the whole thing devolves into shouting about a hippo named "BooBoo BUTT," then puffed up with pride as their talents are praised: "The kid I am reading this book to is THE BEST KID EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD." The comic pacing and foolproof theatrics ensure a wild and silly trip through the pages for everyone. While there are no illustrations, there are plenty of visual cues to keep the pages lively. Dynamic design, judicious use of color, and varied typeface and font size all work together to bring personality and expression to the story. We've seen a lot of excellent wordless picture books recently; here's a good one that reverses that trend. julie roach