The Nonsense Book by Eric Carle -- Book Review

Disclosure: Penguin Kids sent me an advance copy of this book free of charge for this review in return for an honest review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Now everyone knows Eric Carle and probably loves The Very Hungry Caterpillar along with many others of his popular books. We have posted ideas for a birthday party and a story time to kick of a food drive to go with the theme of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Well Eric Carle is coming out with a new book and it is being released on October 13, 2015. It is called The Nonsense Show. You can pre-order it now.

The Nonsense Show is full of a lot of nonsense!! It is fun and silly and it is a great way to introduce young children to surrealism.  Carle's last two books, The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse and Friends, introduced expressionism and abstract art. This sort of trilogy is perfect for introducing young children to the different areas of art. 


While reading The Nonsense Book Hazel and I had a discussion. It is the perfect book to discuss various topics. What is happening in the book? Why is that strange? The first page opens with a rabbit pulling a man out of a hat. We discussed how that was opposite what is suppose to happen.

This lead to a discussion of opposites. Which of course we weren't discussing opposites as in up and down but in things that are the opposite of what we expect or surrealism. After all a magician is usually a person and pulls the rabbit out of the hat.  

Hazel loves this book. She has pulled it out several times to read on her own and always ends up giggling away at the silliness. I think my favorite was the lion tamer or should I say people tamer.

 There is also a page that explains how the man in the moon got there. Let's just say it is rather funny. We really enjoying the laughing and the discussion that goes with this book. An extension to the book would be to look at some surreal art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has an on-line slide show with information about surrealism, or if you have an art museum near you that has surreal art seeing it in real life is even more amazing. Another idea is to make a surreal collage following the tutorial at Hands On Crafts for Kids.  I think Hazel and I will have to give this a try. I will share it when we do. In the meantime, I hope you will check out and enjoy Eric Carle's latest book, The Nonsense Show.