Every single list that appears on this blog is subjective. I mean, here I am declaring stuff to be great based entirely on a single solitary opinion: my own. That’s okay when you’re talking alphabet books or readalouds, but humor is a far trickier matter. There are a LOT of humorous picture books that come out in a single year and this list is just a miniscule smattering of the whole. That said, these are the books that really retained a strong grip on my brain after reading them. There were other funny books out in 2016. I’m just particularly partial to the following. I’m pleased with the number of funny women representing here too. After all, if there’s one thing I know something about, it’s funny girls.
2016 Funny Picture Books
Best Frints in the Whole Universe by Antoinette Portis
Kind of like Du Iz Tak? but with a slight increase in English, this alien friendship story earns its humor stripes when it explains those little socially awkward moments like when you accidentally/on purpose bite off your best frint’s tail.
Dylan the Villain by K.G. Campbell
First off, I love that in this world, villainy is genetic but is capable of skipping generations. Second, I love that our anti-hero’s antagonist is a girl with a killer purple eyepatch. Having super villains as heroes isn’t a new idea in the movies, but in picture books it doesn’t happen all that often. I, for one, am hoping for more Dylan in the future.
The Happiest Book Ever! by Bob Shea
Every book should have a frog in it. There’s a lot of happy happy joy joy to this book mixed with a tincture of Monty Python. Could you ask for anything more?
A Hungry Lion by Lucy Ruth Cummins
The subtitle, which is distinctly Edward Gorey-esque, gives you an indication of what kind of funny book this is. You know what it reminds me of? The movie Alien. And, naturally, the turtle is Ripley. Oh, like you hadn’t considered it before.
I Don’t Want To Be Big by Dev Petty, ill. Mike Boldt
I didn’t bother to do this with any of the other books on this list, but for this one, I wanted to show you my favorite gag. The idea is that the frog is arguing that growing up is a bum rap. His dad tries to come up with reasons why it should still be done. So we get this:
The defense rests, your honor.
Is That Wise Pig? by Jan Thomas
I mean, there’s a boot on that pig’s head. A boot! Just sayin’.
King Baby by Kate Beaton
We’re getting there. Beaton’s starting out slow with her picture books. This one’s funnier than her last, and at the rate she’s going she should be able to make a perfectly Beaton-esque one soon. Though, to be frank, this next book on my list felt like Kate Beaton but not by Kate Beaton:
Leave Me Alone! by Vera Brosgol
Did you notice that it appeared on the NPR Book Concierge for 2016? Did you notice who blurbed it? Ah, thank you. Ah, thank you.
Monsters Go Night-Night by Aaron Zenz
Proving yet again that I have the sense of humor of a 5-year-old. But let’s be frank. That potty joke? The best misdirection I’ve seen on a page in a long time.
Next to You: A Book of Adorableness by Lori Haskins Houran, ill. Sydney Hanson
I’m going to stand by this one as a humor book. It throws you off with its big-eyed animals and then you get the snarky text. Seriously funny.
Oh No, Astro! by Matt Roeser, ill. Brad Woodard
Proof positive that you can be a funny book and a visually stunning one all at the same time.
Penguin Problems by Jory John, ill. Lane Smith
Misanthropic penguins make for comedy gold. Every good author worth his or her salt knows that.
Poor Little Guy by Elanna Allen
Of all the books on my list today, I worry that this one is the most underrated. Did you ever get a chance to read it? I feel like it got buried under a lot of other publications, but for sheer visual storytelling and gags it’s an out-and-out winner. I. Just. Love. It. Love it, love it, love it.
President Squid by Aaron Reynolds, ill. Sara Varon
Okay. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to watch this video at the 18:30 mark. That’s when Aaron reads from his book and it’s the funniest reading ever you did see.
Pug Man’s 3 Wishes by Sebastian Meschenmoser
He’s the funniest German picture book author/illustrator of all time. Granted, the competition may not be particularly intense . . .
Quit Calling Me a Monster! by Jory John, ill. Bob Shea
Both Jory and Bob are on this list twice. And I’d take off one of their books apiece, honest I would, if it weren’t for the fact that the monster in this book is named Floyd Patterson. I mean, I’m only human, after all.
Super Happy Magic Forest by Matty Long
2016 was a good year for picture books making fun of fantasy tropes. I honestly think this book would appeal to any kid, though, regardless of their interest in swords and sorcery. Plus there’s a Gollum reference on one of the pages, so kudos there.
This is My Book by Mark Pett (and no one else)
I almost swallowed my gum when I saw that the author of this book was Mark Pett. Pett? A subdued author/illustrator by and large, this book is a huge departure for him. A huge, hilarious departure. We could all use a mischievous panda in our lives.
A Voyage in the Clouds: The (Mostly) True Story of the First International Flight by Balloon in 1785 by Matthew Olshan, ill. Sophie Blackall
Somehow the fact that it’s all based on a true story (the iron vest, the peeing off the boat, the landing in their underwear, etc.) makes it all the funnier. Plus the fact that Ms. Sophie Blackall is in Funny Girl in 2017 is just the icing on the cake.
Who What Where? by Olivier Tallec
It’s a sequel but I don’t rightly care. It’s a hilarious sequel and may even improve upon the original.
Interested in the other upcoming lists of this month? Here’s the schedule so that you can keep checking back:
December 1 – Board Books
December 2 – Board Book Adaptations
December 3 – Nursery Rhymes
December 4 – Picture Book Readalouds
December 5 – Rhyming Picture Books
December 6 – Alphabet Books
December 7 – Funny Picture Books
December 8 – Calde-Nots
December 9 – Picture Book Reprints
December 10 – Math Picture Books
December 11 – Bilingual Books
December 12 – International Imports
December 13 – Books with a Message
December 14 – Fabulous Photography
December 15 – Fairy Tales / Folktales
December 16 – Oddest Books of the Year
December 17 – Older Picture Books
December 18 – Easy Books
December 19 – Early Chapter Books
December 20 – Graphic Novels
December 21 – Poetry
December 22 – Fictionalized Nonfiction
December 23 – American History
December 24 – Science & Nature Books
December 25 – Transcendent Holiday Titles
December 26 – Unique Biographies
December 27 – Nonfiction Picture Books
December 28 – Nonfiction Chapter Books
December 29 – Novel Reprints
December 30 – Novels
December 31 – Picture Books
Leave Me Alone!
By Vera Brosgol
Roaring Brook Press (an imprint of Macmillan)
$17.99
ISBN: 9781626724419
Ages 4-7
On shelves September 13th
Knitting. It shouldn’t be so hard. I say this as the grown daughter of a chronic knitterer (not a word). I grew up neck deep in roving. I know the difference between a gossip wheel and a walking wheel (these are different spinning wheels). I know that if you want a permanent non-toxic dye for wool you use Kool-aid, that wool straight from the sheep is incredibly oily, and that out there are people who have turned the fur of their dogs and cats into sweaters. Yet the simplest act of knitting is lost on a good 50% of the children’s book illustrators out there that year after year can’t even be bothered to figure out which way the knitting needles are supposed to go. Down, people. The ends go down. In 2016 alone we’ve seen books like Maggie McGillicuddy’s Eye for Trouble get it wrong. Fortunately 2016 has also seen correctly positioned needles in Cat Knit, Ned the Knitting Pirate, and the greatest knitting related picture book I’ve seen to date Leave Me Alone! A superb readaloud of unparalleled visual humor, this is a knitting picture book par excellence and a pretty darn good original folktale too, come to think of it. Allowing for the occasional alien, of course.
“Once there was an old woman. She lived in a small village in a small house . . . with a very big family.” And by big family we mean big extended family. One gets the feeling that all her grown kids just sort of dump their own children on her, because there are thirty small grandchildren running amok in her home. Winter is coming soon and the old woman is keen on getting some knitting done for her extended brood. Trouble is, knitting and small children do NOT mix. So she picks up her stuff and goes into the deep, dark forest. That’s where the bear family finds her. So she goes to the mountains. Where the goats find her. Next it’s the moon. Where curious aliens find her. That leaves a wormhole where the void turns out to be her saving. Only problem is, it’s lonely in the void. Once her work is done, she heads back and when she sees her grandkids again, she doesn’t have to say a single word.
Here is the crazy thing about this book: It’s Vera Brosgol’s first picture book. I say that this is crazy because this does not read like a debut. This reads like Brosgol has been churning out picture books for decades, honing her skill, until finally at long last she’s produced a true diamond. But no. Some people get all the talent apparently. This is not, I should not, Ms. Brosgol’s first book in general. Her graphic novel Anya’s Ghost got a fair amount of attention a couple of years ago, and it was good. But nothing about that title prepared me for Leave Me Alone! Here we have a pitch perfect combination of text and image. If you were to read this book to someone without mentioning the creator, I don’t think there’s a soul alive who wouldn’t assume that the author and illustrator are one and the same. This is due largely to the timing. Just open the book to the first page. Examine the old woman on that page. Turn the page. Now look how that same woman has been transposed to a new setting and her expression has changed accordingly. Basically this sold the book to me right from the start.
Funny picture books. For an author, creating a picture book that is funny means doing two things at once. You must appeal to both children and parents with your humor at the same time. Do you know how hard that is? Making something that a five-year-old thinks is funny that is also humorous to their parental unit is such a crazy balancing act that most picture book creators just fall on one side of the equation or the other. Make it funny only to adults and then you may as well just forget about the kids altogether (see: A Child’s First Book of Trump). Opt instead to only make it funny to kids and you doom the grown-ups to reading something they’d rather eat hot nails than read again (see: Walter the Farting Dog). But I honestly believe Brosgol has found the golden mean. Both adults and kids will find moments like the older sister stuffing a yarn ball in her brother’s mouth or the presence of the samovar (even in a wormhole) or the bear tentatively touching its nose after the old woman’s vigorous poke very funny indeed.
And let’s not downplay the writing here. There is serious readaloud potential with this book. I’ll level with you. In a given year you’ll see hundreds and hundreds of picture books published. Of these, a handful make for ideal readalouds. I’m not talking about books a parent can read to a child. I’m talking about books you can read to large groups, whether you’re a teacher, a librarian, or some poor parental schmuck who got roped into reading aloud to a group of fidgeting small fry. Few books are so good that anyone and everyone can enrapture an audience with them when read out loud. But Leave Me Alone! may be one of those rare few. Those beautiful butterflies. Those little jewels. The language mimics that of classic folktales, bandying about phrases like, “deep, dark forest”. And there are so many interactive possibilities. You could teach the kids how to yell out the phrase “Leave me alone!” all together at the same time, for example.
As for the art, it’s perfect. There’s a kind of Kate Beaton feel to it (particularly when babies or goats have full balls of yarn stuffed into their mouths). As I mentioned before, Brosgol knows which way knitting needles are supposed to lie, and better still she knows how to illustrate thirty different, and very realistically rendered sweaters, at the story’s end. There are also some clever moments that you’ll notice on a third or fourth read. For example, the very first time the woman yells, “Leave me alone!” she’s exiting the gates to her home and her children’s homes. The only people who hear her are her grown children, which means we don’t have to worry about small ears hearing such a caustic phrase from their grandma. Smart. And did you see that the twins get identical sweaters at the end of the book? Finally, there are the visual gags. The goats that surreptitiously followed the old woman to the moon, nibbling on a moon man’s scanner, for example.
I’ve seen a fair amount of hand wringing over the years over whether or not a children’s book can contain a protagonist that is not, in fact, a child, an animal, or an inanimate object rendered animate. Which is to say, are children capable of identifying with adults? More precisely, an adult who just wants to be alone for two seconds? The answer is swift and sure. Certainly they can. Particularly if the kid reading this book is an older sibling. The concept of being alone, of craving some time for one’s own self, is both familiar and foreign to a lot of kids. I’m reminded of the Frog & Toad story “Alone” from Days With Frog and Toad where Toad has a dark morning of the soul when he learns that Frog would like to have some alone time. Because of all of this, we see a lot of picture books where a character wants to be alone, has difficulty getting that “me time”, and eventually decides that companionship is the way to go (Octopus Alone, A Visitor for Bear, etc.). A few celebrate the idea (All Alone] by Kevin Henkes) but generally speaking parents use these books to convince their perhaps less than socially adept children that there are benefits to the concept of friendship. And there is a place in the world for such books. Fortunately there is also a place in the world for this book.
Folks sometimes talk to me about current trends in picture books. Sometimes they’re trying to figure out what the “next big thing” might be. But of course, the best picture books are the ones that at their core don’t really resemble anything but themselves. Leave Me Alone! isn’t typical. It reads aloud to big crowds of kids with great ease, lends itself to wonderful expressions, pops off the page, and will make anyone of any age laugh at some point. It’s a great book, and if I have to write another 500 words to convince you of it, I can do so. But why delay you from seeing it any longer? Go. Seek. Find. Read. Savor.
On shelves September 13th.
Like This? Then Try:
Source: Galley sent by publisher for review.
Misc: Cute promotion or THE CUTEST PROMOTION? As you can see from this Bustle interview, Ms. Brosgol knit twenty-five teeny tiny sweaters to promote this book. I steal the image for my own nefarious purposes and show it to you here:
Every single list that appears on this blog is subjective. I mean, here I am declaring stuff to be great based entirely on a single solitary opinion: my own. That’s okay when you’re talking alphabet books or readalouds, but humor is a far trickier matter. There are a LOT of humorous picture books that come out in a single year and this list is just a miniscule smattering of the whole. That said, these are the books that really retained a strong grip on my brain after reading them. There were other funny books out in 2016. I’m just particularly partial to the following. I’m pleased with the number of funny women representing here too. After all, if there’s one thing I know something about, it’s funny girls.
Yahoopy! I adore Best Frints in the Whole Universe and so do my 6-year-old and 3-year-old boys.
Fun thing to do: read a kid the book and then ask them whether Yelfred and Omek are boys or girls. I love that the book never lets on one way or another.
Thank you so much for these lists! It’s making every morning extra special!
The tree frog gag is hilarious. Thank you for that. And for everything else.
Love the lists! Thank you.
Thanks for all the great recs! I loved A Hungry Lion & Leave Me Alone. Very curious about Next to You, since it doesn’t have a typical funny-looking cover.
That’s part of its allure.
If my 2-year-old was picking the best book of the year it would be Poor Little Guy. It’s his favorite book and he keeps requesting it from the library. He loves it and he thinks it’s so funny. One of my favorites of the year too.
I’m also so glad to see someone else you loves Super Happy Magic Forest. So much for fantasy fans and geeky parents and their kids. I love all the many various side comments and speech bubbles. It has so much going on it’s a delight to read!
How did you know I needed a laugh? Thanks for this list and inspiring me to write a funny book of my own!