The Wonder Book

Hello, You!

So . . . this book is full of stuff I've always wondered about . . .

Like:

• Did Miss Mary Mack have friends who liked other colors?
• Could everything important about the world be summarized in a poem that rhymes?
• How do Moms always know when you're about to sneak a cookie?
• Who hid something under the Tooth Fairy's pillow when she was a little girl?

Inside you will find stories, short poems, lists, palindromes, visual treats, and random observations. Some parts are happy, some sad-ish, some silly, some serious, some crunchy, some with a soft center.

You can open the book up anywhere and read. So the beginning could be the end, and the end could be the beginning. But I guess the middle is always the middle. . . .

P.S. aren't Paul's drawings the best?!

Publishers Weekly

This waggish collection combines poems, wordplay, and black ink illustrations to Silversteinian effect. Familiar nursery rhymes are comically recast (“This little piggy played the stock market”), puns run rampant, a poem about a “backwards prince” is meant to be read backwards itself, and there are some winning palindromes (“Was it Eliot’s toilet I saw?”). An occasional gag falls flat (“I wonder why people don’t replace them when they take showers?”), but the sheer diversity of silliness ensures that there is something (funny) for everyone. Ages 5–10. (Mar.)

Amy Krouse Rosenthal is a New York Times bestselling author of books for children and grown-ups. Her children's books include the Cookies series; Duck! Rabbit! and The OK Book, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld; Little Pea, Little Hoot, and Little Oink, illustrated by Jen Corace; Spoon, illustrated by Scott Magoon; and The Wonder Book, illustrated by Paul Schmid. Her work for grown-ups includes the memoir Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life and the film project The Beckoning of Lovely. Amy lives in Chicago.