The Book with No Pictures

This book is a hilarious romp through all the silliness words can have. Being a "picture book" with no pictures, this book introduces the youngest readers to the idea that books can still be entertaining even without illustrations. It accomplishes that by having the adult reader need to say a bunch of ridiculous things like " ... I am reading you this book with my monkey mouth ... " and struggle through pronouncing nonsense sound effects like "GLuURR-GA-wocko," all against their protests peppered throughout the text. While the emphasis is on the words and their meanings (or non-meanings as the case may be), the book is still a little more exciting to behold than your average paperback novel as it does have a smattering of different show more colors and fonts. All in all, this is definitely a book I would recommend for a read aloud story time, whether one on one with your favorite little one or in a library or school setting. show less

Genius.
I'm home for a quiet day. After lunch I read B. J.'s book aloud to myself — dessert!
Books are magic and meant for sharing; this is why I loved story-time as a children's librarian. Novak makes it clear he understands this magic as he writes a read-aloud book for a tough crowd — kids raised on visual everything.
Thank you, Mr. Novak. More please.

A friend of mine is an Awesome Super Librarian (can leap stacks of books in a single bound!). She happened to share a youtube video of BJ Novak reading this at some kind of kids assembly. I thought it was brilliant.

I don't watch TV (on occasion I may catch Netflix) so I was unaware that the author was a famous actor. Knowing that now makes no difference to me. I still think this is an engaging and fun book for kids...for all ages, really.

My favorite part about this book is the pictureless notion introduced to kids by encouraging them in a humorous and non-intimidating way to progress to chapter books. Books without pictures can be enjoyable, too...and a decidedly fun bonus to hear a grownup read aloud,

"My only friend in the whole wide show more world is a hippo named Boo Boo Butt." show less

Actor and screenwriter B.J. Novak made his children's book debut with this 2014 title, which (as its name suggests) has no pictures. What it does have is an amusing and clever text, one which emphasizes the fun to be had in non-illustrated books, books that "only" have text. The premise here is that the reader, presumably reading aloud to children, must say everything written in the book, which leads to plenty of humorous situations in which an adult is forced (against his or her objections) to say silly things, and to make funny noises. Whatever is written has to be read, because those are the rules...

Having seen The Book with No Pictures read to great effect at multiple story-times, I can attest to the fact that its silly sense of show more humor is very appealing to young children, who will get lots of giggles out of watching the reader "struggle" with the story, objecting to the things he is being made to say. On a deeper level, it can be said to offer children an encouragement, when it comes to approaching less profusely illustrated texts, as they progress as listeners and readers themselves. It also taps into the child's perspective, when learning to read, that everything on the page must be read, something that is often quite true, when reading is something one is learning for the first time. Although there are no pictures here, we shelve this in the picture-book section at work (and I have listed it on that shelf, here on the site), since we don't really have a "non-picture-books for picture-book readers" shelf. Recommended to young children who enjoy stories with a silly sense of humor. show less

This is the book filled with ridiculous words, which adults have to read. "No matter what." With words like "Blork" and "Blurf" and phrases like "Ba-dooongy Face!!!!," who needs pictures? This is an excellent choice for silly read-alouds - might pair nicely with stories by Dr. Seuss. I'd select this text for young readers (like my 4-year-old son, who loves the book), but older elementary children might find this amusing as well. This book could be used as a mentor texts for students interested in writing comedic or "joke" books. It would also be fun to consider asking students to write their own stories without illustrations and see what they come up with. You could also do some really interesting word study/word work with this book. I show more mean, just trying to sound out "Ba-dooongy Face" would be entertaining. show less

This is a delightful book and a great transition from picture to text only books. As the title suggests, there are no pictures--though there are some variations in font size and color. The book begs to be read out loud. Kids delight in seeing adults in thrall to a text which directs them to read all manner of nonsensical words and statements. The reader (as directed by the text) keeps asking the listeners if she can stop reading this embarrassing book; to which she always gets a resounding no from her audience.

After reading this out loud to children in grades one to three, I had to up my rating from 4 to 5 stars. (It worked less well with kindergarten students, who surprisingly found it silly and didn't like the fact that there were no show more pictures. Possibly this is due to the fact that the youngest children don't have enough knowledge about the conventions of picture books to cue into the way Novak stands these conventions on their heads.) The kids literally rolled in the aisles, but it was hard to settle them down later! One child noticed there was a warning on the back cover, and I laughingly cajoled her for not letting me know BEFORE I read the book. I'm afraid the inquiries about my best friend, a hippo named Boo Boo Butt, are going to go on for a long while. show less

Okay so I actually listened to this book on audiobook, and I feel like that's how it's supposed to be read, so that was cool!

This book breaks the fourth wall in a really interesting way. It's silly, it's outright ridiculous, and kids would love it. I wanted to listen to it to see if it would be appropriate for a class if I finish my teaching degree. ... and I don't think it is, because I think the kids would laugh so loudly they'd probably disturb everyone in the street, let alone the next class.

I'm sure kids would absolutely adore it, though. The Book With No Pictures strokes their little tiny egos and calls them very, very clever for choosing a book with no pictures.

So go forth, and unleash a monster upon your children. Just know show more that they'll probably want you to read it to them over and over and over again. show less