The Book with No Pictures

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.

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 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

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

Here's the deal with this book: it's a sort of weird genius. When I picked it up - having in mind to produce the same effect with my children that Mr. Novak had in his popular clip showing him reading the book to guffawing children - I already had in mind a review which would read simply: "Here's the problem with this book: it doesn't come with B.J. Novak." Scratch that, because I was wrong. Part of the reason I thought I'd be right is because I'm not the most talented or effusive children's book reader. I was wrong on that count too. My children are 9, 7, and 4, and they were falling all over themselves with laughter despite my poor stylings. There's something about the way this book is constructed - meaning, it's not just that it's show more missing pictures - that makes this book such a joy to experience. I'd love to figure out it's DNA and recreate the same magic. This is really some kind of wonderful. show less

The Book with No Pictures by B. J. Novak (Author)
Dial Books (2014), Edition: 1St Edition, 48 pages

The Book with No Pictures by BJ Novak is an incredibly fun and interactive book that doesn’t quite easily fit in to a preset genre of children’s book. Despite the title, The Book with No Pictures would most easily fit in as a picture book because of the lack of chapters and the structure of the Book with No Pictures. The general conceit of the Book with No Pictures is that though the child listening to or reading the book may think that a book with no pictures would be boring and serious, the child eventually realizes the reader has to say everything that the book says, no matter how silly the words are. The Book with No Pictures show more breaks the fourth wall right away with the line, “Here is how books work: Everything the words say, the person reading the book has to say. No matter what. That’s the deal. That’s the rule. So that means…Even if the words say…BLORK. Wait, what? That doesn’t even mean anything.” From there the book gets even sillier.

I think it goes without saying that I really enjoy this book. The interactive nature of this book makes it perfect for reading to children as I can attest to through personal experience. The children often are screaming at you in between fits of laughter to continue when you pretend that you don’t want to continue the book. After reading this book to multiple groups of children, I often was asked, rather loudly, to read it for a second or third time in a row. One thing that I think the book does incredibly well is provide examples of literary structure, in how books work. Another thing that the book has in spades is nonsense words. Nonsense words aren’t just funny; children reading the book are exposed to new combinations of word sounds that will eventually help them learn new sounds and sound combinations. The last thing that I think that the Book with No Pictures does well is encourage inflection and expression. If the person reading the book out loud doesn’t put any expression or inflection into their reading, then the jokes and the style of the book are going to fall flat and be terribly uninteresting to listen to. Children who read this book out loud are going to have to learn how to properly inflect based off of punctuation and the flow for the book to be a fun read for the reader and those listening.

5/5 show less

This is a five star book. Not because it is brilliant writing, or because it is beautifully illustrated. In fact, it is NOT illustrated and that is the point of the book. This book talks directly to the readers. It is funny and irreverent and sets the reader up to sound absolutely silly. The kids will ask me to read this book to them over and over again. They do not get tired of it. They LIKE to hear a teacher say "monkey butt," and the squeal with laughter. There is a "warning" on the back, and the kids can't even stand it, "don't read the warning," they say. "What Warning?" And I just start reading the book. It is campy. It is cheesy. And the kids love it.