The family spent last night on the sofa giggling more than a little bit over our latest literary acquisition.
It's "The Purple Kangaroo," the latest book by comedian Michael Ian Black (who, at his best, made "The State" great and, at his less-than-great...well, you've seen all those VH-1 "I Love the...").
The book stars a very M.I.B.-esque monkey who boasts that he can read your thoughts. It was our second run-in with one of his kids' books. The first was "Chicken Cheeks," which we borrowed from the library a while back. It fell flat in our household, but if you have a kid who's fond of goofy gross-out humor who might find animal posteriors humorous, I say go for it.
The number one draw this new one had for me was its illustrator, Peter Brown. From "Flight of the Dodo" to "The Curious Garden," I can't say enough about how much I love this guy and endorse the purchase of his entire canon.
Here's me and my daughter meeting Brown at last year's LA Times Festival of Books.
Perhaps it was his punchy, modern sketches that elevated it, or maybe Black is just now hitting his stride as a writer. Either way, the book is a winner. It has sophisticated kid humor, but with silly tongue-twists that keep it light and fun. And, speaking practically, it's short enough that you won't immediately groan whenever your kid pulls it off the shelf. We actually had to fulfill an "Again, again!" request after the first read.
Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I think I do a better job of reading it than the author himself (though, I did so without wearing a furry monkey costume).
And for your parental viewing pleasure, here's a satirical Rated-R making-of clip, wherein, Black asks a beleaguered Brown, "Did you actually paint this with your vomit, or did you vomit on it afterwards?"
No comments:
Post a Comment