Category: Delightfully Silly

Charts for Babies

by Michelle Rial

Abrams Appleseed, 2026. 36 pages.
Review written June 2, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

This book makes my mathematical heart happy! Mind you, I’m the mom who, frustrated when grading third-semester calculus papers, taught my small children the chain rule of calculus. (Just the pattern, not anything about the concepts behind it.)

This book, too, gives small children some patterns – and maybe they’ll notice some concepts. But that’s kind of not the point.

It’s all light and happy with pages in rainbow colors and rhyming text. And we see things in charts. Here are a couple of examples of the text in spreads:

This is wide.
This is narrow.
This is a line.
This is an arrow.

And of course that’s accompanied by an appropriate chart. Here’s another:

This is a block.
This is a stack.
This is a duck.
The duck says, “Quack Quack!”

The charts are all pretty much that simple, with some excuses to give hugs at the end.

And then on the final end papers, we get a key to the types of charts used – in a chart: Venn diagram, column chart, dumbbell chart, area chart, scatter plot, bubble chart, matrix, pie chart, bar chart, sound wave chart, timeline, decision tree, line chart, concentric diagram, spiral graph, and key. That last box is wonderfully self-referential.

So you see – they will learn something! It’s all clever and fun. What is a chart, after all, but a visual representation of something, a way to understand it at a glance? I always love a read-aloud that parents will enjoy, too, and this one is 100% fun!

michellerial.com

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Now You Know Your ABCs…

(Or Do You…?)

written by Caspar Salmon
illustrated by Matt Hunt

Nosy Crow, 2026. 32 pages.
Review written April 20, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

Hooray! The creators of the amazing How to Count to One (And don’t even THINK about other numbers) have created another interactive and utterly silly parody of a basic concept book – this time taking on the alphabet.

The book begins simply enough with A is for Apple, B is for Ball, and C is for Castle. But when the narrator starts in and tries to do D is for Dog – the “dog” turns out to be a wolf – a Dangerous, Dangerous wolf!

So what are you to do but cry out EEEEEEEEEEK in fear and run all the way to France?

The nearest French person is no help, because they do not speak your language, so you Go and seek shelter inside a tree house.

The adventure that follows gets zanier and zanier as you try to outwit the wolf and get back home – all the way through the alphabet.

It all adds up to an extremely silly book that begs to be read aloud, preferably with a group that indeed already knows their ABCs so they will appreciate the surprising ways each next letter is brought into the story.

matthuntillustration.com
nosycrow.us

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My Tiger

by Joy Cowley
illustrated by David Barrow

Gecko Press, 2026. 32 pages.
Review written May 6, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

Reading this picture book at my desk made me laugh out loud and push it on my coworkers. Not to give anything away, but this is going on my Pinterest board with the title “Books Where Someone Gets Eaten.” (I once had a librarian coworker whose favorite picture books were all in that category.)

The story here is simply and beautifully told. We see a child – a Black kid who wears glasses, a striped shirt and shorts, and a pleasant smile on his face – and his tiger, who is about ten times as big as he is.

There aren’t many words on each page, and the story is effectively told with the help of the pictures. The first spread says, “My Tiger loved cake.” And the picture is of the kid pointing ahead as they pass a Patisserie with an abundance of cakes in the shop window.

The next page says, “I took him to the cake shop.”

As the tiger eats, the baker asks if he’s dangerous.

“No,” I said, “He only eats cake.”

But alas! After consuming large quantities of cake, the tiger gets a bad tooth. So the kid drags him to the dentist.

A haughty dentist asks the same question as the baker and gets the same answer. The kid has quite a time (shown in the pictures) of getting the tiger to sit in the dentist chair. The tiger howls and growls as the work is being done.

After she finishes up, the dentist tells the kid that the tiger must eat no more cake.

“Then what can he eat?” I said.
“The same as other tigers,” she said.

What happens after that is what made me laugh out loud.

So – this isn’t a book for parents who are trying to teach their children that they can’t survive on cake. Probably not for children afraid of the dentist, either. (Or maybe it would be therapeutic?) But for kids and grown-ups who enjoy a silly story with beautiful pictures and a fitting ending? This picture book is just right.

joycowley.com
geckopress.com

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Zip Zap Wickety Wack

A Story About Sharing

by Matthew Diffee

Neal Porter Books (Holiday House), 2025. 48 pages.
Review written October 24, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

This absolutely brilliant picture book makes me want to do story times again.

I’ve always loved books that subvert animal sounds. The classic Bark, George! by Jules Feiffer, was one of the first books my kid could read. And I loved to bring out The Cow That Went Oink, by Bernard Most, for story times. Zip Zap Wickety Wack reminds me of Froodle, by Antoinette Portis, which was a big hit when I gave it to my nieces. [Look at that! Froodle was also edited by Neal Porter. No wonder the similar brilliance.]

In this case, the book begins very deadpan. Completely traditional pictures and standard text tell us:

The cow says, “Moo.”
The horse says, “Neigh.”
The sheep says, “Baa.”

Could have been written in the 1950s! Except on that very same page, the goat is looking up at the sheep picture above him.

The goat says, “Wait a second. I say baa.”

So there’s an argument. They don’t want to share.

They start thinking of other things they could say, but oink, quack, cockadoodledoo and ribbit are already taken.

So the sheep declares that he will think of something that no one has ever said. He does a lot of thinking and then gets a full spread declaring:

“Zip Zap Wickety Wack
Bing Bang Walla Balla
Flip Flap Yackety Yack
Wing Ding Dilly!”

See why I want to read this book in story time?

But the book is only beginning to get silly at this point, because on the next spread we see a very small flying saucer coming to the farm. The alien inside says:

I hate to be a bother, but zip zap wickety wack bing bang walla balla flip flap yackety yack wing ding dilly is what I say. Why don’t you just wiffle?”

It turns out that wiffling is alienese for sharing.

And how they work it out is still completely deadpan and utterly hilarious.

And kids learn about sharing at the same time!

Trust me, you’ll want to find this book, and if you can read it without reading aloud, you have more self-control than I do.

matthewdiffee.com

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Oh Dear, Look What I Got!

by Michael Rosen
illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

Candlewick Press, 2025. 36 pages.
Review written September 16, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

Looks to me like we’ve got a new storytime classic here! Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, the creators of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt have teamed up for this new picture book.

The situation is simple and silly, illustrated on the first few pages:

I went to the shop
to get me a carrot.

Oh dear, they gave me . . .

a parrot!

Oh dear,
look what I got!

Do I want that?

No, I do NOT!

This text repeats six times, each time with a different object and a different rhyming animal. It builds to delightful chaos, and then all the shopkeepers come, bringing the correct object, and are pictured leading away the animals.

Does it make any sense? Could this ever happen? Not really.

Do I want to read it aloud?

YES, I DO!

Maybe it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but I predict you can get a whole roomful of preschoolers chanting along with the fun.

Check it out, and see if you aren’t charmed!

michaelrosen.co.uk
helenoxenbury.co.uk
candlewick.com

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Bearsuit Turtle Makes a Friend

by Bob Shea

Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2025. 40 pages.
Review written May 20, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

This book is. So. Silly. I love it!

This is a book with a bizarre situation, played straight. You really do have to read it yourself (or in story time!) to fully appreciate it. But I’ll give you the idea.

The main character is in a bear suit with a very large mouth. You can see a green head centered in the mouth. We figure out from the title this is Bearsuit Turtle.

As the book begins, Bearsuit Turtle is sitting on a swing, hanging still. We see another turtle coming out of the trees, and Bearsuit Turtle says, “Hey, gimme a push.”

But when we turn the page, we get this exchange:

Be careful, I’m a for-real bear. Scary, right?

No way! I’m a for-real bear expert, and you are NOT a for-real bear.

But Bearsuit Turtle has evidence!

Oh yeah? Got any honey?

No.

That’s because I ate it.

Other evidence includes climbing a tree to the top and back to the bottom while the other turtle’s eyes are closed (because bears don’t like to show off).

The turtle is still skeptical, since he could be a super-round squirrel, but then Bearsuit Turtle hibernates on command.

So then they start doing things that the for-real bear expert says bears like to do – foraging (getting ice cream at a truck), bicycling, and smashing pumpkins.

But when something comes up that the expert doesn’t know if bears like – they both make a confession.

I hope I’m not destroying the suspense if I quote my very favorite page:

It’s okay. I also have something shocking to share.

Look, there’s no good way to say this, but I’m not just a for-real bear. I’m pretty sure I’m maybe also a turtle.

A WHAT? This day has been a roller coaster. I don’t even know what to believe anymore.

But one thing the new friends do know – they truly enjoy doing things together.

So much fun. So silly. Try this one out with a kid.

BobShea.com
abramsbooks.com

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Pop! Goes the Nursery Rhyme

words by Betsy Bird
pictures by Andrea Tsurumi

Union Square Kids, coming in March 2025. 56 pages.
Review written November 19, 2024, from an Advance Reader Copy.
Starred Review

This is one of those delightfully silly picture books that simply begs to be read to a child. Full disclosure: I’ve served on a committee with Betsy Bird and have read her blog for years, so I consider her a friend.

The idea for the book is simple, and a note at the back reveals that it springs out of her family’s traditions in reading nursery rhymes. The book is a series of nursery rhymes, beginning with Pop! Goes the Weasel, but when it’s time for the last line of each other rhyme – the weasel pops out there as well.

And to make it complete, we’ve got a fussy secretary bird overseeing the action and hysterically scolding the weasel at every turn.

The idea is simple, but illustrator Andrea Tsurumi’s execution brings it to brilliance. I love the exuberance of the weasel popping out and the visible frustration of the secretary bird.

This host starts relatively calm, progresses to confused, and has a lovely page with a total breakdown:

That’s it!

That’s IT!

No more weasels!
No weasels in the sky
or in cakes or rolling down hills or any of that!

NO.
MORE.
WEASELS.

Just do a rhyme without a weasel in it. Just one!
PLEASE!

The next rhyme – “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe” progresses over eleven pages before the grand Pop! – with tension building all the way (and the thought bubbles of the bird adding to that tension). [And can I just say that showing a bird getting a popsicle for “Pick up sticks” and throwing the sticks away for “Lay them straight” is absolutely brilliant?]

But it all ends happily with all the animals from earlier in the book showing up and celebrating the weasel.

As it says in Jon Scieszka’s blurb on the back, I really do need to find a kid and read this book to them.

afuse8production.slj.com
andreatsurumi.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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