Sunday, May 28, 2006

Weird, yes, but sometimes that's good

Ever since Mother Reader coined the phrase Weird-Ass Picture Books (and I'm just assuming she coined it. Maybe it's been around for decades without seeping into my life), I've been looking at books with a whole new eye.

Everyone will define this new genre differently, of course. I mean, around the GottaBook place, we're big fans of Josse Goffin's Ah! and Oh! but they are definitely odd. I'd also put J.otto's Penguin Dreams in the weird category.

But I must tip my hat to Fuse #8 for her discovery of Else-Marie and her Seven Little Daddies. As Fuse says, perhaps it defines the genre? Regardless, it's fun to keep a lookout for these off-kilter books, and I'm sure I speek for others when I say "if you find 'em, don't keep 'em secret!"

2 comments:

fusenumber8 said...

I love "Ah" and "Oh"! A co-worker of mine discovered them and found that they made for particularly good readalouds. But weird? Oh my, yes. Yes indeed. In all the right ways.

Greg Pincus said...

Somehow we ended up with Ah! and have sat scratching our heads with it countless times. I agree that it's weird in the right ways. Weirder still that it got published! There's also an Oh! Coloring book (or rather, there WAS) and OTHER Josse Goffin books I've never stumbled into but would love to. You guys got 'em?