Caramel reviews The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak

Caramel and Marshmallow have been reading The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak this past week, and they cannot put it down. Caramel explains why below. Sprinkles is taking notes and asking followup questions.

Sprinkles: What’s the deal with this book Caramel?

Caramel: It’s an awesome book!

S: What do you mean? First of all, what is it about?

C: It’s about a kid making their parent into a monkey. And other funny things.

S: What do you mean?

C: The kid is supposed to ask an adult to read the book out loud. The words of the book are so silly, and the adult has to say them all!

S: For example …?

C: Ok let me read to you a bit.

Yes, I am a monkey. Also I am a robot monkey.

And here is another one:

glug glug glug my face is a bug … I eat ants for breakfast right off the ruuuuuug!

And then there is this one:

My only friend in the whole wild world is a hippo named Boo Boo Butt!

S: And the adult is supposed to read all of this out loud?

C: Yep! It’s so funny! The whole book is full of such silly jokes.

S: And the adult is basically forced to make a fool of themselves… Right?

C: Yep.

S: Is it also fun to read on your own?

C: Yep. I laughed so much saying silly things out loud! It was so funny!

S: So why is the book titled The Book With No Pictures?

C: Because there are no pictures in the whole entire book! But the book doesn’t need any pictures. It’s awesome with or without any pictures.

S: So if you were to illustrate this book Caramel, what kinds of pictures would you add?

C: A robot monkey, ants on rugs, a monkey eating ants off the rug, a hippo named Boo Boo Butt, a robot monkey with a blueberry pizza for a head… Hmm. I want pizza now. I really want some pizza…

S: You want a blueberry pizza?

C: No. But I can also eat blueberries…?

S: Hmm. Let us get back to the book. This seems like a good transition book for kids, right? A parent who wants to encourage their kid to try and read books with not too many pictures might end up getting this for them. And then …

C: Then they would learn their lesson! Ha ha ha!

S: They would pay the price — not only of the book but also of the deed! They would need to read it out loud for their kids and then I bet the kids would be rolling on the ground laughing, listening to their adult saying things like “my best friend is a hippo named Boo Boo Butt!”

C: Ha ha ha! Boo Boo Butt! Why don’t you read this book to me Sprinkles?

S: Hmm… I’m detecting a setup here…