Joy Cowley & David Barrow
A Lot of Silly
World-renowned Joy Cowley brings her silly side to this collection of rhymes and nonsense old and new, illustrated in colour by master of the absurd David Barrow, for families to recite and remember.
Joy Cowley knows what makes children laugh. In this book full of absurd poems and very short, silly stories, a man takes his tadpoles for a walk in his hat, a cat is surprised by its talking feet, a tiger gobbles up a dentist, ten baggy clowns do a dowacky dance … along with many more preposterous flights of imagination.
Each fantastical suggestion is playfully expanded in the illustrations of David Barrow—a first-rate visual comedian.
Cowley channels the spirit of classic silly humorists Spike Milligan, Edward Lear and Ogden Nash in this exuberant collection for the family that emboldens us to experiment with language and play.
“This collection of short texts shows a lesser-known side of Joy Cowley that children love. It’s a very good book—there’s a lot of silly in it.” – Julia Marshall, Publisher
Gecko Press
Picture Book | Poems
Original title: A Lot of Silly
Age 5+
64 pp
hc | 254 x 190 mm
Publication: October 2024
Author: Joy Cowley
Illustrator: David Barrow
All rights available, excl. Simplified Chinese & Turkish
- A book of pure fun in visual comedy and language play
- Illustrations channel the absurdity Barrow is known for in his picture books
- Collects the best short and funnies of a lifetime of Cowley’s writing for children
Awards
- Winner of the Scholastic New Zealand Award for Best Children’s Book 2025
- Winner of the New Zealand Listener's Top 50 Kids Books, 2024
“Selected for National Poetry Day 2024: World-renowned Joy Cowley brings her silly side to this collection of rhymes and nonsense old and new, illustrated in colour by master of the absurd David Barrow. Cowley channels the spirit of classic silly humorists Spike Milligan, Edward Lear and Ogden Nash in this exuberant collection for the family that emboldens us to experiment with language and play.” – Youth Libraries Group –
“Herein we have almost forty pieces of silliness by Joy Cowley, all of which I think have come from her previous works and it’s terrific to have them brought together just waiting to make both children and adults giggle.” – Red Reading Hub –
“With clear rhymes that will be fun to read aloud, Cowley has crafted a collection that has merit both at home and in the classroom, with rhymes playing with early language and sentence structures and encouraging the most absurd of imaginations.”—Books+Publishing, 1 August 2024
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