The Nonsense Show

by Eric Carle Narrated by Kevin R. Free

Overview

A TIME Magazine Top 10 Children's Book of 2015!

Ducks growing out of bananas? A mouse catching a cat? What's wrong with this audiobook from the creator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar?
 
Yes, there's something strange, something funny and even downright preposterous in every bit of this audiobook. But it's not a mistake - it's nonsense! And it's also surrealism. Nonsense lies at the heart of many beloved nursery rhymes. Children readily accept odd statements like “the cow jumped over the moon” and “the dish ran away with the spoon.” This fanciful bending of reality is also basic to surrealism.

In this audiobook, nonsense and surrealism combine to spark creativity and imagination. What's true? What's impossible? What's absolutely absurd? From Eric Carle, creator of the classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, comes an audiobook to make children laugh and think, preparing them for a lifetime of loving both words and art.

Praise for The Nonsense Show

* "Carle creates fun and laughter in this homage to the surrealist artist René Magritte. [P]erfect for storytimes and silly times all round. Carle hits it out of the nonsense park!"-Booklist, starred review

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A TIME Magazine Top 10 Children's Book of 2015!

* "Carle creates fun and laughter in this homage to the surrealist artist René Magritte. [P]erfect for storytimes and silly times all round. Carle hits it out of the nonsense park!"–Booklist, starred review

* "A sure hit as a read-aloud and a definite purchase for picture book collections."–School Library Journal, starred review

* "A picture book made to incite pleasure and joy."–Kirkus Reviews, starred review

* "[The Nonsense Show], with its cleanly designed white pages, makes the unexpected elements of the imagery stand out and prompts questions and wonder."–Horn Book, starred review

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2015-07-22
The celebrated picture-book artist enthusiastically joins the nonsense tradition. Carle's nearly 50-year career has produced myriad concept books about counting, the alphabet, and colors, as well as simple, original stories, retellings of fairy tales, and picture books that push the physical boundaries of the form. This latest proves that Carle can reinvent himself as a creator in the field, as he now revels in the absurd, eschewing any pretense of teaching a concept or even engaging with story. Instead, spread after spread uses nonsensical text and sublimely ridiculous pictures to provoke laughter and head-shaking delight. In addition to the book's title, art immediately cues the book's silly tone: the cover displays one of Carle's signature collages against an empty white background; it depicts a duckling emerging from a peeled-back banana peel. The title-page art presents a deer sprouting flowers rather than antlers from its head. When the book proper begins, and language joins illustration, readers are ushered into a series of situations and scenarios that upend expectations and play with conventions. "Ouch! Who's that in my pouch?" asks a kangaroo with a little blond child instead of a joey in her pouch. Another scene shows two snakes, joined at the middle and looking for their respective tails. A picture book made to incite pleasure and joy. (Picture book. 3-7)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940177992716
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	12/12/2023
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	Up to 4 Years

Videos