100 books like The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse

I love the subtle humor in this book. I also love the pattern and rhythm of the dialogue.

When the story circles back to the natural conclusion, I use the characters’ reactions and expressions to have children infer what really happened, who stole the hat, and how the problem was solved. 

A monster goes to Pete’s house with the intention to eat him. Pete asks the monster to play with various games and toys. The monster reluctantly does so, but each time the text goes, “He didn’t want to play...because he wanted to...EAT PETE!” Then something shocking happens – he eats Pete! Let me assure you, though, the ending is very sweet.  

I always admire Jeffers’s work – it is ever creative and original. The Hueys are arguing when Gillespie comes by. He asks them, “What are you fighting about?” This stumps them. They don’t remember. Then comes Gillespie’s last line, which blows your mind. The ending couldn't be more perfect.  

A wolf spots a chicken and asks her to go for a stroll with him. She accepts. Then they proceed to the woods, to his house, to his kitchen... he intends to make chicken soup. Each time she accepts his offer, her chicks show up and yell, “that’s not a good idea!” I guarantee you that you won’t see this coming. The chicks’ warning isn’t meant for their mother. What a twist! 

What terrible tome would Morticia and Gomez have read to little Wednesday in order to ensure that she would have the most noxious nightmares? I believe they would’ve cracked open this gothic children’s classic, written and illustrated by the enigmatic Edward Gorey.

This book recites the alphabet, with each letter representing how a child died. Take, for instance, the representation of our second letter: “B is for Basil assaulted by bears.” What better way for a wicked whelp to learn her letters?

I both chuckled and winced while reading this book, especially with the paired black-and-white illustrations. It’s funny and deeply dark, which is, of course, the perfect mix for an Addams Family fan.

The appalling schoolgirls that attend Ronald Searle’s fictional girls’ boarding school drink copious amounts of alcohol, smoke, and regularly set the school on fire. In Searle’s cartoons horror and humor are tightly wound. But don’t let the girls’ boarding school gym slips, high black socks, boater hats, and hair bows fool you. These young ladies grin at violence and delight in rule breaking.

Searle drew the second and third St. Trinian’s cartoon while he was a Japanese prisoner of war during World War II. Remarkably, Searle kept a visual record of his time in captivity, including self-portraits, four hundred secret sketches of prisoners and the brutalities of the guards as well as seventy-two cartoons, including the second and third St. Trinian’s drawings which were published in 1945 after his return from the war.

I love all of Lynda Barry’s comics, but It’s So Magic! is my favorite collection.

Barry’s adolescent heroines steal wine from parents and from synagogues; they drink the cheap stuff like Boones Farm Apple Wine, and concoctions of mixed hard liquor made from whatever they can find in their houses that give the reader a hangover just thinking about it.

Barry’s graphic narratives also include stories of sexual abuse that are visually overlaid with gross-out drinking humor that will make some laugh and others turn away. Through visual humor, she brings into view both drinking girls and knowledge about sexual assault often hidden from view.

Barry’s alternative lessons remain radical in this politically fraught time when neo-temperance advocates attempt to tie #MeToo to abstinence, once again trying to enforce the idea that girls and women are to blame if they drink too much alcohol.

This book comes in the form of a small baby board book. On the back of this parody of a board book, the author asks “Are you a parent? Are you thirsty? Too many of us allow our infant sons and daughters to lay about idly napping, drinking milk, and sometimes ‘turning over.’ Why not have them mix you a cocktail? Thanks, Baby!”

Each page includes a mixology template for different members of the family. I particularly like the first recipe- a martini for mama. Additionally, like educational shape recognition texts that purportedly teach babies to organize visual information, Brown inserts easily recognizable liquor brands, Bombay Sapphire distilled London dry gin and Martini dry vermouth.

That the martini is the mother’s drink tickles the viewer to question whether gin is mother’s helper or mother’s ruin. Brown’s tongue-in-cheek board book foregrounds alcohol as pleasure and a baby that brings ease rather… show more.

I love Noir because it starts out plausibly enough but quickly starts slipping sideways into stranger realms. Of course, it’s Christopher Moore, so it’s going to be hilarious. I was amazed by the world-building Moore undertakes in creating the seamy underside of late-40s San Francisco. The Raymond Chandler/Dashiell Hammett vibe totally drew me in.

I found Noir’s San Francisco to be not quite realistic and not quite cartoonish, but very engaging. It’s a perfect place for Sammy “Two Toes” Tiffin, a down-on-his-luck bartender who meets the love of his life while the rest of his world goes cuckoo. Adding in twists involving a crashed flying saucer and a secret conspiracy of the wealthy and powerful had me hooked.

I devoured these books as a kid! My best friend and I played the different characters in the school yard in elementary school.

Such fun depictions of various animal characters, and it’s serialized, so the characters get to live beyond just one book. Any kid who loves dogs or animals will delight in these.