The Nosyhood

by Tim Lahan

Overview

In this debut picture book by award-winning artist Tim Lahan, a happy couple moves into a new apartment and is promptly visited by a steady stream of jolly uninvited well-wishers—a baker, a basketball player, a cop, a weightlifter, and more. Soon, there are so many housewarmers that people begin standing on top of one another, creating a human house of cards. Just when it seems that the packed space will burst, a gigantic nose enters the scene and sneezes the building off the page. Bless you.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781938073939
Publisher:	McSweeney's Publishing
Publication date:	10/11/2016
Pages:	60
Product dimensions:	4.60(w) x 12.50(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	2 - 5 Years

About the Author

Tim Lahan is a New York-based graphic artist and designer. Since 2008, Tim has worked with The New Yorker, Jack Spade, McSweeney's, Nike, The New York Times, and a bunch of others. The Nosyhood is his first picture book for kids.

Editorial Reviews

10/17/2016
A couple moves into a new home in this ultra-tall, ultra-narrow board book, Lahan’s first work for children. Left-hand pages show their front yard, while right-hand ones reveal the house’s interior, which gets outrageously crowded as neighbors descend. A chef, bodybuilder, pirate, and astronaut are just a few of the uninvited guests who cram themselves into the skinny space until a giant’s sneeze sends them scattering (and covers them in snot). The ending is somewhat anticlimactic, but kids will get a kick out of seeing Lahan’s characters squish, squeeze, and contort themselves to fit into the house’s ever-diminishing space. Ages 3–up. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

2016-12-14
When a couple moves into a new home, neighbors stop by to welcome them. As the book starts, a young couple (he with pale skin and red hair, she with ever-so-slightly darker skin and brown hair) open the door to their new home. They are pleased to have "this great new house." One by one their neighbors show up and enter the house. Some come bearing gifts, such as the pregnant black woman who arrives with fruit or the white baker who's baked a three-tiered cake. There is also a bodybuilder, a clown, a three-person band, a cowboy on his horse, a basketball player, a nurse, a cop, and even a pirate with a peg leg, hook hand, and parrot. (Of these enumerated, only the black basketball player and the brown-skinned policewoman appear not to be white.) The house is filling up, but the visitors are still arriving. Eventually a giant nose shows up and with a giant (and rather disgusting) "Ah… / CHOOO!" sneezes everyone away. As the couple cleans the plentiful green snot up they decide this might not be the place for them after all. The colorful illustrations have a quirky goofiness to them, but it is hard to see who the intended audience for this board book may be. With not a child in sight, or even a child-oriented topic (aside from the snot), it is clearly not a book for babies despite the format. Not for babies or toddlers but maybe for middle-graders in the gross-joke phase or perhaps a house-warming gift for a friend with a strong stomach…? (Board book. 10 & up)

Kirkus Reviews