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Carle (The Hungry Caterpillar) had surrealism on his mind when he made his new picture book. Every page has a juxtaposition that is meant to surprise the reader. The painted tissue paper collages are about items children are familiar with, but they are arranged in an illogical way.
A kangaroo says “Ouch! Who’s that in my pouch?” It’s not a joey. It’s a child. On the first two pages, there is a bird in an aquarium and a fish in a bird cage. They have changed places, and neither is happy. “I’m too wet!” says the bird. “I can’t fly! It’s absurd!”
Further along, the reader will meet a two-headed snake; each head is looking for its tail. There is also a mouse walking a cat (he explains his actions by saying he’s in the Nonsense Show), and two men in a taxi that is being powered by their feet, reminiscent of the Flintstones cartoon. My favorite scene is the page with the train, because smoke doesn’t come out of the smoke stacks. Sheep do!
The mixups (and their synonyms) are even reflected in the text. On one page, a small boxer knocks out a giant boxer (KO! OK!) and on the last page, the magicians from the first page (a boy and his rabbit) share other words that mean the same as "nonsense" (i.e. baloney, odd, hogwash, weird).
This is my favorite Eric Carle book. And because of his well-known name and the funny cover, I don’t think I will have to do much book talking to get this book into the hands of patrons.
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The Nonsense Show