Recently, the great people at McSweeney’s McMullens reached out to me and introduced to a few of their children’s titles.

I thought I would choose my favorite to share with you all today.

Meet Crabtree by Jon and Tucker Nichols.

I have read some reviews that compare Crabtree to a Richard Scary book which I think is an apt comparison. That said, I think Crabtree might be more fairy called Richard Scary plus… And the plus is for the grown up readers.

In this story Alfred Crabtree wakes up to discover that his false teeth are missing. Throughout the remainder of the book he sorts through all of his things and puts them in to categories such as ‘everything that started with S’, ‘tools and utensils’ and my favorite, ‘I don’t know what these things are.’ Having recently moved, we have a few just such boxes in our own basement.

Children always love looking through books filled with tons and tons of pictures. This can, though, become a bit tiresome for the adult reader. Enter the genius of Crabtree. If you look carefully, each page has at least one subtle joke.

For example, on the page labeled, ‘small yapping dogs’ you will find a picture of a cat labeled ‘Powder the cat shouldn’t be here’ and on the ‘shells page’ you will find turtle and crab shells but also pasta shells. And of course there is the page where Albert eventually finds his teeth. I am not going to tell you where they are but I will tell you that they are in a pretty funny spot.