Writer and Actor B.J. Novak to Publish Companion to His #1 New York Times Bestselling Children’s Book, ‘The Book With No Pictures’
New York, NY ― In 2014, B.J. Novak reimagined the idea of a traditional picture book with his riotously funny and conceptually groundbreaking The Book With No Pictures – a genuine phenomenon which has since sold more than a million copies in the U.S., been translated into 26 languages worldwide, and spent the past 113 weeks since its publication on the New York Times Best Sellers List (including 35 weeks at #1).
In September 2017, B.J. Novak will return to children’s books with The Alphabet Book With No Pictures. In this highly-anticipated follow up to The Book With No Pictures, Novak again celebrates the wonder of words and the power of reading with a rambunctious and innovative text that grows sillier and more elaborate as the reader progresses through the alphabet. In this non-traditional alphabet book, kids will discover how letters work together to build sounds, words and sentences that get increasingly funny and imaginative. The further into the alphabet you get, the more powerful tools you have for laughter and fun. By the end, instead of shouting “Read it again!” as kids do after hearing The Book With No Pictures, kids will exclaim, “Let me read it again!”
The book will be published by Dial Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers, and will have a first printing of 500,000 copies. The book will be published simultaneously in the UK and Australia/New Zealand by Penguin Random House.
B.J. Novak says: “I want to inspire more kids to see that words can be as funny, exciting, and powerful as anything in the world. And to corner the market on books without pictures before kids realize I’m not the only person who writes them.”
Lauri Hornik, President and Publisher of Dial, says, “Not only is B.J. Novak one of the country’s funniest writers, he’s also one of the most inventive. Instead of simply creating another book full of giggles, he extensively workshopped this new text until it became a book that, alongside tons of laughs, will also truly help kids learn to read.”
Novak’s innovative, text-only “picture book,” The Book With No Pictures, was one of the most acclaimed books of 2014, with critics raving that this “funny, creative, and smart” (Vanityfair.com), “riotously fresh take on breaking the fourth wall” (Kirkus Reviews) is “destined to be a classic” (Jezebel) and “will have little ones laughing and finding new appreciation for words” (Entertainment Weekly). The New York Times Book Review called it “Conceptually radical . . . making the refreshing and contrarian case that words alone have sensory and imaginative vibrancy to spare.”
B.J. Novak is best known for his work on NBC’s Emmy Award-winning comedy series The Office as an actor, writer, director, and executive producer. He is also known for his work as a standup comedian and for his performances in programs such as HBO’s The Newsroom and films such as Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds and Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks. He will next appear in The Founder alongside Michael Keaton.
Novak’s acclaimed collection of short stories, One More Thing, was a New York Times Best Seller in 2014, and was excerpted in The New Yorker and on This American Life.
Penguin Random House, the world’s largest trade book publisher, is dedicated to its mission of nourishing a universal passion for reading by connecting authors and their writing with readers everywhere. The company, which employs more than 10,000 people globally, was formed on July 1, 2013, by Bertelsmann and Pearson, who own 53 percent and 47 percent, respectively. With nearly 250 independent imprints and brands on five continents, Penguin Random House comprises adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction print and digital English- and Spanish-language trade book publishing businesses in more than 20 countries worldwide. With over 15,000 new titles, and close to 800 million print, audio and eBooks sold annually, Penguin Random House’s publishing lists include more than 60 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world’s most widely read authors.
