Michael Rosen's Book of Nonsense

The spikiness of Mackie's drawings brilliantly complement Rosen's spiky verse, creating a book of nonsense which deserves to become as well-known as its namesake. It has elements of a post-modern homage to Lear but it is also strikingly original: teasing and challenging the reader with an assault of visual and verbal puns, poems, limericks and awful jokes. Mackie's wittily sophisticated artwork dances off the page in a riot of bold lines and bright colours, but it repays close looking too, for jokes and asides are contained in the fine detailing of her work. The design and layout of the pages is excellently judged, providing a constant sense of exhilaration. A variety of lettering is employed for poem titles and jokes, also enhancing and extending meaning, and a running gag is provided by the 'TV Cats' who interact both inside and outside a television set.