I received this book in exchange for sharing this information.
Penguin Kids has launched the Penguin Young Readers 12 Days of Picture Books campaign. Each day they are highlighting select picture books from the past year and running different giveaways each day from the Penguin Kids Facebook page.
Today’s book is: The Nonsense Show
Ducks growing out of bananas? A mouse catching a cat? What’s wrong with this book from the creator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar?
Yes, there’s something strange, something funny and even downright preposterous on every page of this book. But it’s not a mistake – it’s nonsense! And it’s also surrealism. Nonsense lies at the heart of many beloved nursery rhymes. Children readily accept odd statements like “the cow jumped over the moon” and “the dish ran away with the spoon.” This fanciful bending of reality is also basic to surrealism.
In this book, nonsense and surrealism combine to spark creativity and imagination. What’s true? What’s impossible? What’s absolutely absurd? From Eric Carle, creator of the classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, comes a book to make children laugh and think, preparing them for a lifetime of loving both words and art.
Following on the heels of The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse (an homage to the artist Franz Marc and expressionism) and Friends, with its semi-abstract artwork, The Nonsense Show forms a trilogy of sorts, dedicated to introducing young readers to different styles of artwork without ever overlooking the need to, first and foremost, appeal to children and their love of play. One of the true legends and pioneers of picture book making continues to expand and challenge the genre.
My kids loved The Very Hungry Caterpillar ever since they were little but now they are of course too old for it, so they say. Well this picture book is full of the same Eric Carle illustrations we expect but everything is so silly. The book is full of nonsense that will make you as a reader laugh and your child laugh possible uncontrollably! My kids cannot get enough of this book, even my 8 year old can’t hold it in. This book is different too than The Very Hungry Caterpillar as it is a big picture book and not a board book, which is what we had. This is becoming a classic book for us that I am sure we will cherish for many years.
Check out The Nonsense Show
Looking for book ideas? Visit the Penguin Young Readers Holiday Gift guide website where you can build and share your own wish list from a huge assortment of kids’ books for all age groups.
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