2023—One for the Books!

We can't wait to tell you about the pretty awesome books we have coming in 2024. But first, we’ve got some cool events and groovy reviews to share!

YEEHAWFOR PAUL BUNYAN AND SHAPES AND SHAPES!

The Texas Library Association list included two TOON Books, Paul Bunyan: The Invention of an American Legend and Shapes and Shapes​, on their 2024 Little Mavericks List! Cowboy hats have been ordered!

TOON superstar author Kevin Mccloskey is headed to several cities from coast to coast this year! Check out some of these events below:

March 24: Eric Carle Museum, Amherst, MA. 2PM FREE with Museum Admission
April 23: Politics and Prose Bookstore, Wash, D.C. 10:30AM FREE

April 23: Takoma Park Library, Takoma Park, MD. 6PM FREE

Aug 10: Wellsboro ComicCon, Wellsboro, PA. All day, FREE​​

And that's not all!

Betsy Bird included Caterpillars on the SLJ 2023 Science & Nature List! We love what Betsy has to say:

“The art is a fantastic mix of hyper-realism and a more cartoony style. If we’re talking about finding books that instill a love of nature (and we are) then this instills a sense of curiosity with these particular creepy crawlies.”

We’ve gotta share this lovely, insightful review from Comicon.com, which says Frank Viva’s Gotta Go!​ is “something of a mini-masterpiece, the sort of thing that both you and your children will adore.” Amazing!

Nadja Spiegelman and Sergio García Sánchez’s Lost in NYC: A Subway Adventure will be featured as part of the National Building Museum's Building Stories exhibition, opening January 21st in Washington D.C.. The kid-friendly exhibition explores architecture and engineering in children's books. Be sure to stop by and give Lost in NYC some love!

Pretty Ugly by David Sedaris and Ian Falconer is coming out pretty soon, on February 27! Now, we think this book is pretty spectacular, but don't take our word for it. Check out the reviews—Publishers Weekly,Kirkus (with a star), and this rave from School Library Journal’s Betsy Bird:

“It’s been a long time since a picture book shocked me. Since it made me wake up and look around frantically and say aloud, ‘What just happened?!?’ [...] This is a book with hints of William Steig and Quentin Blake and Roald Dahl. Sedaris has given us a joke at the end of this book that’s going to make the kids you read this story to (and make sure it’s a group of kids for maximum effectiveness) scream and laugh all at the same time. It’s gonna blow their little freakin’ minds and they will LOVE YOU for grossing them out in this way.”

This is one of our most anticipated titles of the year—and it's not just us! Kirkus, Amazon, and BookPage have all put in on their most anticipated books list. That's pretty...anticipatory? That doesn't sound quite right. Let's go with “PRETTY AWESOME!”

Don’t forget to preorder, pretty, please!

Preorder Pretty Ugly at Amazon

Preorder Pretty Ugly ​at Barnes & Noble ​

Preorder Pretty Ugly ​at Bookshop.org