The Silly Book

This article is about The Silly Book by Stoo Hample. For The Silly Book by Babette Cole, see Babette Cole.
The Silly Book

front cover
Author Stoo Hample
Illustrator Stoo Hample
Cover artist Stoo Hample
Publisher Harper & Brothers
Publication date
1961
OCLC 560156504
818/.5402 21
LC Class PN6166 .H36 2004

The Silly Book is a children's book by Stoo Hample, first published in 1961 and reissued in 2004. It includes silly songs, silly names to call people and things, silly recipes, silly poems, silly things to say, and "silly nothings". Hample's first book, it was originally edited by Ursula Nordstrom.[1] It has been described as "a classic pastiche of poems, songs, jokes, drawings and goofy remarks",[2] as a book that "defies categorization",[3] and as "the literary equivalent of a child's giggle fit" and "a humor reference point for countless knee-high baby boomers."[1]

At the starting page, it shows two of the main characters, Boodleheimer and The Easter Bunny, (although he looks more like a worm) and is later changed to Mother Goose. It also has a boy and a girl as the main characters, whose names are J.B. and Louise.

The book also inspired an LP called The Silly Record. In 2010, a new edition of The Silly Book was packaged with the first-ever release of The Silly Record on CD.

Characters

Publication data

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Children's review: The Silly Book", Publishers Weekly, August 2, 2004.
  2. "Stuart E. Hample, Humorist and Cartoonist, Dies at 84", The New York Times, September 24, 2010.
  3. "Life Guide: Children's Books", LIFE, November 17, 1961, p. 23. Excerpts available at Google Books.