The Book About Nothing

by Mike Bender, Hugh Murphy (Illustrator)

Overview

Fans of The Book with No Pictures and A Perfectly Messed-Up Story will enjoy this innovative and wildly funny read-aloud from the adult humor bestselling authors of Awkward Family Photos and T-Rex Trying.
 
This book has nothing to do with rainbows, rocket ships, meatballs, or wizards. Instead, it’s full of zip, zilch, diddly-squat, bupkus.
 
But don’t worry, reading this book isn’t all for nothing, because sometimes nothing is actually something.

Like if you pick up all the toys in your room, what will be on the floor? NOTHING.
When you take a bath, what are you wearing? NOTHING.
And when you shut the lights off to go to bed, what do you see? NOTHING.
 
Mike Bender and Hugh Murphy stop at nothing to explore the key concepts of nothing and zero using playful language and hilarious illustrations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399551116
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	02/13/2018
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	10 MB
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Mike Bender is the coauthor of Everything Is Awkward and the New York Times bestselling Awkward Family Photos. He lives in California with his wife and two children. Nothing really inspired him to write this book.


Hugh Murphy is the creator, author, and illustrator of T-Rex Trying. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with his wife, daughter, and dog.

Editorial Reviews

"Here’s a book that takes nothing seriously. . . . Bender (Awkward Family Photos, 2010) and Murphy’s (T-Rex Trying, 2014) picture book elicits a chuckle, and the predominantly black and white images with bold splashes of color are at times endearing." —Kirkus Reviews

"Fans of B.J. Novak’s The Book With No Pictures will be glad to see another inspired breaking of the fourth wall." —School Library Journal

"Nothing really is something." —Booklist

"[A]n entertaining comic premise that offers some amusing primary-grades kid humor." —The Bulletin

"Bender cleverly riffs on the concept of nothing, and if it sounds meta, it is. It'll turn your Nova's brain inside out as they contemplate how *nothing* can actually be *something*." —Literati

From the Publisher

01/01/2018
Gr 1–3—A book, quite literally, about nothing. The conceit is maintained from the endpapers (they are filled with nothing words like: zot, naught, zip, nil, zilch, nada, diddly squat) to the author bio: "Nothing really inspired him to write this book." Fans of B.J. Novak's The Book With No Pictures will be glad to see another inspired breaking of the fourth wall, though the "even nothing is something" concept here is quite a bit more complex (not to mention, arguably false), jumping headfirst off the edge of logic that the well-known "Something from Nothing" tale teeters so precariously on. A variety of fonts in different sizes and colors as well as creative word placement assist readers and highlight Bender's quirky sense of humor. A riff more than a story arc that builds to a climax, the biggest laughs will likely come from the underwear and poop bits. Murphy's black line drawings on mostly white pages are reminiscent of Shel Silverstein's style. A minimalist splash of color here and there complement the purposely overstated text and indicate that the book is intended for a more sophisticated audience—extending its reach beyond that of a typical picture book. VERDICT A fun and clever concept book for storytime and language classrooms.—Hillary Perelyubskiy, Los Angeles Public Library

School Library Journal

2017-10-16
Here's a book that takes nothing seriously. The opening pages explicitly list all the things that it is not about: rainbows, socks, meatballs, doctors, tacos, princesses, and underpants are on that list. Instead, it sets out to explore the concept of nothing. The narrator is depicted as a dodo wearing a monocle, and its tone is that of an adult talking to a small child. Almost all the pages have something child readers and adult caregivers can relate to, from picking up toys ("there will be nothing on the floor") and finishing meals ("there will be nothing left") to noises in the dark (don't worry—it's nothing!). Bender (Awkward Family Photos, 2010) and Murphy's (T-Rex Trying, 2014) picture book elicits a chuckle, and the predominantly black and white images with bold splashes of color are at times endearing. Line-drawn cartoon animals, fairly realistically rendered save for the anthropomorphic props, pose in appropriately negative space, occasional details (the dodo's yellow bill and feet, an anteater's red-and-white-checked neckerchief, a crocodile's purple pajamas) picked out in bright, matte color. However, although it constantly and positively reframes nothing as something, the picture book leaves readers wondering whether "nothing" can always ethically be equated to a thing of value.Reading this book might not be for nothing…but it begs the question: is nothing really something? And more importantly, is (doing/being/saying) nothing always OK? (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews