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Billy's Booger
A young lad who would rather draw than do math, spell, or gargle finds the perfect outlet for his always-on imagination in this manifesto to creative joie de vivre, featuring a book within a book, from the brilliant minds that brought you The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.
Billy loves to draw. He draws on books and on his homework and even on his math tests—he might not get the answer right, but doesn’t it look swell sitting in a boat at sea? His teacher doesn’t think so, and neither does the principal. But the librarian has an idea that just might help Billy better direct his illustrative energies: a book-making contest!
Billy gets right to work, reading everything he can about meteors, mythology, space travel, and…mucus? Yep, his book is going to be about the world’s smartest booger, who stays tucked away until needed—say, to solve multiplication problems, or answer questions from the President. Billy’s sure his story is a winner. But being a winner doesn’t mean you always win.
Full of nostalgic references to a time when TV was black-and-white and Sunday newspapers had things called the funnies, this wildly fun story-within-a-story is based loosely on children’s book legend William Joyce’s third grade year, and includes a sewn-in mini-book of that tale of the world’s smartest booger.
Billy loves to draw. He draws on books and on his homework and even on his math tests—he might not get the answer right, but doesn’t it look swell sitting in a boat at sea? His teacher doesn’t think so, and neither does the principal. But the librarian has an idea that just might help Billy better direct his illustrative energies: a book-making contest!
Billy gets right to work, reading everything he can about meteors, mythology, space travel, and…mucus? Yep, his book is going to be about the world’s smartest booger, who stays tucked away until needed—say, to solve multiplication problems, or answer questions from the President. Billy’s sure his story is a winner. But being a winner doesn’t mean you always win.
Full of nostalgic references to a time when TV was black-and-white and Sunday newspapers had things called the funnies, this wildly fun story-within-a-story is based loosely on children’s book legend William Joyce’s third grade year, and includes a sewn-in mini-book of that tale of the world’s smartest booger.
40 pages, Hardcover
First published June 2, 2015
About the author
William Joyce
177 books1,425 followersWilliam Joyce does a lot of stuff—films, apps, Olympic curling—but children’s books are his true bailiwick (The Numberlys, The Man in the Moon, Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King, Toothiana, and the #1 New York Times bestselling The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, which is also an Academy Award–winning short film, to name a few). He lives with his family in Shreveport, Louisiana.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 193 reviews
January 14, 2019
The title is kind of gross, but this is a cute little book. As it says on the cover, it’s sorta a memoir.
William Joyce wrote this about Billy, his 4th grade self. There was a book writing contest that year and Billy entered the contest. There is a little insert with what looks to be the actual book he wrote about a super booger that helps Billy with Math after a meteor hit his room. He even drew the pictures in the little book. He did not win the contest, but his book was the most popular and checked out from the library. Shows you what adults know about good literature.
I like little Billy. He is quirky and quite different from the other kids, which leads right into being a world renown Children’s author.
I was really struck by the beautiful drawings of hands in this book. He does some amazing pictures of hands several times. They are beautiful. I have heard many artists say that hands are some of the most difficult things to draw. William proves his skills here. They are mad skills.
My nephew thinks this book is awesome. It makes my niece laugh and grosses her out, but she read it too and gave it 3 stars. The nephew gave it 5 stars. Thank goodness he didn’t fixate on a boogie. He’s still fixated on Franken Berry.
William Joyce wrote this about Billy, his 4th grade self. There was a book writing contest that year and Billy entered the contest. There is a little insert with what looks to be the actual book he wrote about a super booger that helps Billy with Math after a meteor hit his room. He even drew the pictures in the little book. He did not win the contest, but his book was the most popular and checked out from the library. Shows you what adults know about good literature.
I like little Billy. He is quirky and quite different from the other kids, which leads right into being a world renown Children’s author.
I was really struck by the beautiful drawings of hands in this book. He does some amazing pictures of hands several times. They are beautiful. I have heard many artists say that hands are some of the most difficult things to draw. William proves his skills here. They are mad skills.
My nephew thinks this book is awesome. It makes my niece laugh and grosses her out, but she read it too and gave it 3 stars. The nephew gave it 5 stars. Thank goodness he didn’t fixate on a boogie. He’s still fixated on Franken Berry.
May 18, 2015
The fictionalized picture book memoir is a fairly new creation, when you get right down to it. It’s not as if Sendak was telling tales about a little boy in Brooklyn or Margaret Wise Brown was penning nostalgic stories of a girl in a Swiss boarding school. But somewhere during the latter part of the 20th century, the form sort of took off. Tomie dePaola typified it with books like Oliver Button Is a Sissy. Michael Rosen took an adult perspective in The Sad Book. And Patricia Polacco has practically made a cottage industry out of it with stories like Thank You, Mr. Falker and Mr. Lincoln’s Way amongst others. They’re still relatively rare, though, so when you encounter a book like Billy’s Booger: A Memoir (Sorta) your first thought isn’t that this is going to have any bearing whatsoever on author William Joyce’s real life. Instead, you zero on in that word. “Booger”. Kinda hard to get away from. And you want to write the book off as gross based on that alone, but the image on the cover stops you. Not the small waving green guy, though he’s pretty cute (until you realize what exactly he is) but rather the bespectacled wide-eyed boy with the book. Get into the story and you encounter a tale that I can honestly say is unlike any other Joyce creation I’ve read before. Funny and relatable with more Bill Joyce in-jokes that you could shake a stick at, this is a picture book memoir that feels deeply personal. And all it took was a bit of fictional phlegm.
Let it be understood that even before the incidents involving the book, upon which I shall elucidate further in a moment, it was an undeniable fact that Billy was both a usual and unusual kiddo. Usual since he loved “monster movies and cartoons and comic books”. Unusual because he was the kind of child that liked to spice up things he regarded as too regular. This attitude was applied towards everything from homework to sports to the best possible way to eat your peas at dinner (for what it's worth, the trigonal form is to be recommended). Then, one day, the librarian Mrs. Pagely let Billy know about an upcoming book contest where kids would write and illustrate their very own creations. Billy was seriously psyched and pored his heart and soul into his magnum opus, Billy’s Booker: The memoirs of a little green nose buddy. Suffice to say, Billy did not receive any awards. Distraught and disheartened, he no longer had his former pep and verve. And then, one day, he saw something in the library that pretty much changed his entire life.
You know when you walk into a fictionalized picture memoir that what you are getting can’t possibly be all the facts surrounding a pivotal point in the author’s life. But truth be told, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a straight nonfiction picture book memoir in all my livelong days. So your job becomes figuring out what parts of a given storyline are true and which parts are exaggerations. With Joyce, the text is pretty straightforward. There’s nothing too wild, wacky, and out there involved. It’s the art where the man’s imagination soars. There are the natural exaggerations, like the fact that you never see Billy’s sister without her ear firmly attached to a phone receiver, or the way Billy’s book lights up as he writes in it. Then there are the set pieces. Joyce has always cultivated a true love of 1950s/60s nostalgia. Beehives, cat-eye glasses, buttoned up collars, and skirts replete with crinoline. In Billy’s Booger, Joyce creates for himself an idealized childhood. And in no better place is this visible than when Billy settles down to read the Sunday color comics.
Sharp-eyed spotters with a yen for classic newspaper comics will spend ungodly amounts of time poring over the panels that Joyce has painstakingly created here, trying to figure out what he’s referencing in one comic or another. For my part I was able to identify a Peanuts tribute (that one was pretty easy), a comic about the Shmoos of L’il Abner (only here they’re called “Smooks” and rather than "Al Capp" they’re written by "Al Hat"), a clear cut Little Nemo tribute, what appears to be a Terry and the Pirates homage, Flash Gordon, Dick Tracey (I love that the version here is called “Gunn”), The Gumps (maybe), what appears to be Dickie Dare, Bringing Up Father (no homage, that seems pretty straightforward), Yellow Kid, and Beadle’s Half-Dime Library (seriously, Bill?). These never actually existed all at the same time, of course. But Joyce’s original renderings, done with occasional shocking accuracy, are lovingly compiled. He knows perfectly well that kids reading this book aren’t going to get any of these references. Young parents will probably miss a good chunk of them as well. No, this is something Joyce is doing for himself and for the occasional comic enthusiasts out there who get their kicks out of shining iPhone flashlights on the pages trying like mad to make out the words on these teeny tiny panels.
Similarly, Joyce fills his pages to brimming with miniscule details that can only be considered true shout-outs to his fans. Elements of his future books pepper these pages. When Billy first starts writing his book, a little Dinosaur Bob sits on his desk, holding down papers that contain various Mischievians renderings. At the end of the book you can see his future characters flying through the air. Look closely and you’ll see George from George Shrinks. That floating head? It’s probably Ollie. More Mischievians, a possible robot from his movie Robots (remember that one?), and another Dinosaur Bob. And finally, just to go back to the comics for a second, it appears that Joyce has worked in a reference to Michael Chabon’s picture book The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man. At least that’s how I interpreted his “Jonny Trek” comic written in part by “Mikey Chaboing”. This makes a fair amount of sense, since Joyce once illustrated the cover of Chabon’s book Summerland while Chabon has blurbed various Joyce books over the years.
In the midst of all this fun it would be easy to lose sight of the fact that Joyce’s sense of design and layout are going wild. From the endpapers of kooky ideas to the title page drawn to resemble art from those insipid easy reader books of the 50s (think knock off Dick and Jane). The most ambitious element, however, is the small insert in the center of this book of the titular Billy’s Booger. Now on the bookflap of this title we learn that “William Joyce began writing books in the fourth grade. He’s done a bunch of books since, but this it the true story of his making that very first book. And that book is included in this book.” I understand that, but there is no guarantee that this is the original book itself rather than a modernized version of it. I did wonder, and then pored through it in search of any evidence one way or the other. In the end, I’ve no idea. Does it matter? Probably not. But it does make a reader wonder anyway. Kids, naturally, will take it for granted that it’s the original.
There are reviews I write that are so glowing that I feel compelled to come up with some kind of concern, just so I don’t appear to have fallen for its charms too completely. I'm a reviewer, not a cheerleader, after all. In this case, the best I can do is the fact that sometimes Billy’s sister is drawn in an inconsistent fashion, and his book Billy’s Booger uses that term “gypped” which some folks find offensive. For my part, I found it interesting that if this story is indeed true and Joyce did once submit a book called Billy’s Booger in a book contest then it is fascinating to think that the sole time I’ve seen him return to this kind of gross out humor in a literary form was when he created the aforementioned Mischievians. At the time it felt like an odd aberration in the Joyceian oeuvre. Now, not so much.
We might wonder, why now? Why at this point in his career has Bill Joyce chosen to return to this pivotal moment of his youth? As of 2015 the man is remarkably successful. A former New Yorker cover artist, animator, Academy Award winning filmmaker, app creator, you name it. Heck, the guy even has a statue he designed out there somewhere. In the midst of all this, it’s oddly refreshing to see a book of his that’s just a book. There’s no app tie-in or short film waiting in the wings. It’s a book for its own sake, telling a personal story, filled to brimming with fun and humor and teeny tiny details tailor made for picture book/funny page obsessives like myself. And kids? Let’s not forget the actual intended audience here. They should eat it up with a spoon. It’s just a really nice way of explaining that sometimes critics like myself are not the true arbitrators of whether or not a picture book is any good. Sometimes it really comes down to the kids themselves. They’re the ones who’ll read the title and grab this book so fast it makes your head spin. They say only the rarest kind of best is good enough for our kids. Well this puppy is as rare as it gets and, yes. It’s one of the best. Superhero booger men and all.
For ages 4-6.
Let it be understood that even before the incidents involving the book, upon which I shall elucidate further in a moment, it was an undeniable fact that Billy was both a usual and unusual kiddo. Usual since he loved “monster movies and cartoons and comic books”. Unusual because he was the kind of child that liked to spice up things he regarded as too regular. This attitude was applied towards everything from homework to sports to the best possible way to eat your peas at dinner (for what it's worth, the trigonal form is to be recommended). Then, one day, the librarian Mrs. Pagely let Billy know about an upcoming book contest where kids would write and illustrate their very own creations. Billy was seriously psyched and pored his heart and soul into his magnum opus, Billy’s Booker: The memoirs of a little green nose buddy. Suffice to say, Billy did not receive any awards. Distraught and disheartened, he no longer had his former pep and verve. And then, one day, he saw something in the library that pretty much changed his entire life.
You know when you walk into a fictionalized picture memoir that what you are getting can’t possibly be all the facts surrounding a pivotal point in the author’s life. But truth be told, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a straight nonfiction picture book memoir in all my livelong days. So your job becomes figuring out what parts of a given storyline are true and which parts are exaggerations. With Joyce, the text is pretty straightforward. There’s nothing too wild, wacky, and out there involved. It’s the art where the man’s imagination soars. There are the natural exaggerations, like the fact that you never see Billy’s sister without her ear firmly attached to a phone receiver, or the way Billy’s book lights up as he writes in it. Then there are the set pieces. Joyce has always cultivated a true love of 1950s/60s nostalgia. Beehives, cat-eye glasses, buttoned up collars, and skirts replete with crinoline. In Billy’s Booger, Joyce creates for himself an idealized childhood. And in no better place is this visible than when Billy settles down to read the Sunday color comics.
Sharp-eyed spotters with a yen for classic newspaper comics will spend ungodly amounts of time poring over the panels that Joyce has painstakingly created here, trying to figure out what he’s referencing in one comic or another. For my part I was able to identify a Peanuts tribute (that one was pretty easy), a comic about the Shmoos of L’il Abner (only here they’re called “Smooks” and rather than "Al Capp" they’re written by "Al Hat"), a clear cut Little Nemo tribute, what appears to be a Terry and the Pirates homage, Flash Gordon, Dick Tracey (I love that the version here is called “Gunn”), The Gumps (maybe), what appears to be Dickie Dare, Bringing Up Father (no homage, that seems pretty straightforward), Yellow Kid, and Beadle’s Half-Dime Library (seriously, Bill?). These never actually existed all at the same time, of course. But Joyce’s original renderings, done with occasional shocking accuracy, are lovingly compiled. He knows perfectly well that kids reading this book aren’t going to get any of these references. Young parents will probably miss a good chunk of them as well. No, this is something Joyce is doing for himself and for the occasional comic enthusiasts out there who get their kicks out of shining iPhone flashlights on the pages trying like mad to make out the words on these teeny tiny panels.
Similarly, Joyce fills his pages to brimming with miniscule details that can only be considered true shout-outs to his fans. Elements of his future books pepper these pages. When Billy first starts writing his book, a little Dinosaur Bob sits on his desk, holding down papers that contain various Mischievians renderings. At the end of the book you can see his future characters flying through the air. Look closely and you’ll see George from George Shrinks. That floating head? It’s probably Ollie. More Mischievians, a possible robot from his movie Robots (remember that one?), and another Dinosaur Bob. And finally, just to go back to the comics for a second, it appears that Joyce has worked in a reference to Michael Chabon’s picture book The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man. At least that’s how I interpreted his “Jonny Trek” comic written in part by “Mikey Chaboing”. This makes a fair amount of sense, since Joyce once illustrated the cover of Chabon’s book Summerland while Chabon has blurbed various Joyce books over the years.
In the midst of all this fun it would be easy to lose sight of the fact that Joyce’s sense of design and layout are going wild. From the endpapers of kooky ideas to the title page drawn to resemble art from those insipid easy reader books of the 50s (think knock off Dick and Jane). The most ambitious element, however, is the small insert in the center of this book of the titular Billy’s Booger. Now on the bookflap of this title we learn that “William Joyce began writing books in the fourth grade. He’s done a bunch of books since, but this it the true story of his making that very first book. And that book is included in this book.” I understand that, but there is no guarantee that this is the original book itself rather than a modernized version of it. I did wonder, and then pored through it in search of any evidence one way or the other. In the end, I’ve no idea. Does it matter? Probably not. But it does make a reader wonder anyway. Kids, naturally, will take it for granted that it’s the original.
There are reviews I write that are so glowing that I feel compelled to come up with some kind of concern, just so I don’t appear to have fallen for its charms too completely. I'm a reviewer, not a cheerleader, after all. In this case, the best I can do is the fact that sometimes Billy’s sister is drawn in an inconsistent fashion, and his book Billy’s Booger uses that term “gypped” which some folks find offensive. For my part, I found it interesting that if this story is indeed true and Joyce did once submit a book called Billy’s Booger in a book contest then it is fascinating to think that the sole time I’ve seen him return to this kind of gross out humor in a literary form was when he created the aforementioned Mischievians. At the time it felt like an odd aberration in the Joyceian oeuvre. Now, not so much.
We might wonder, why now? Why at this point in his career has Bill Joyce chosen to return to this pivotal moment of his youth? As of 2015 the man is remarkably successful. A former New Yorker cover artist, animator, Academy Award winning filmmaker, app creator, you name it. Heck, the guy even has a statue he designed out there somewhere. In the midst of all this, it’s oddly refreshing to see a book of his that’s just a book. There’s no app tie-in or short film waiting in the wings. It’s a book for its own sake, telling a personal story, filled to brimming with fun and humor and teeny tiny details tailor made for picture book/funny page obsessives like myself. And kids? Let’s not forget the actual intended audience here. They should eat it up with a spoon. It’s just a really nice way of explaining that sometimes critics like myself are not the true arbitrators of whether or not a picture book is any good. Sometimes it really comes down to the kids themselves. They’re the ones who’ll read the title and grab this book so fast it makes your head spin. They say only the rarest kind of best is good enough for our kids. Well this puppy is as rare as it gets and, yes. It’s one of the best. Superhero booger men and all.
For ages 4-6.
August 4, 2015
Pure fun and a book within a book (Billy's own book). Clever and beautiful. Possibly Caldecott worthy.
March 22, 2016
In the library, we try to discourage nose picking. It's a huge temptation...especially when your loving librarian is reading the perfect book to you. Your fingers just gravitate toward your nose. The librarian may try to subtly discourage you or she might have to flat out say, "There is no nose picking in the library!" With all this emphasis on nose picking, this librarian was sure that Billy's Booger would be a top "PICK" for her March Madness boards. And it was! One of the great things about Billy's Booger is how it encourages young people to write. Make books....let other kids read them....write some more. You just never know who might be "picking" your book as a great read!
October 10, 2015
I know this book deserves a better rating than I gave it, but I just really can't get past the idea of the word booger being in the title. There are certain gross things that make some people laugh and other people cringe. I'm in the latter category with this one. That doesn't mean I don't recognize that this is a great piece of writing and has wonderful artwork. I just wish it weren't about a booger
August 3, 2015
This memoir in picture book format celebrates the creativity of a child destined to become an author. William has trouble at school. He wishes math were as much fun as the comics in the newspaper. He wants to play invented sports in gym instead of the normal ones. Notes are sent home from school. Then along comes a creative writing contest and William is very excited. He works and works on his entry. It’s title is Billy’s Booger and it’s all about a booger in his nose that gets super powers. But when the prizes are given out, Billy doesn’t win any of them, not even honorable mention. He is devastated and starts to act like everyone else. When he’s returning all of the book he used for research for his own book, he hears laughter in the library and heads over to investigate. A group of kids is reading his book and the librarian tells him that out of all of the entries in the contest, his is the most popular! He may not have won the actual prizes, but got something even better.
Joyce tells the story with a wonderful tone. He explains the earlier time when he grew up and children played outside rather than at playdates, when there were only three channels on the TV, and when funnies in the paper were a huge part of your day. It is a memoir about a kid who doesn’t quite fit into the school mold. It’s less about the grownups and how they dealt with him, though that is there in the background and more about him as a child and what he loved to do even then. It’s a testament to following your dream, to doing what you love and what you have always loved.
The illustrations are done in Joyce’s signature style, one that embraces vintage elements but also shines with a modern feel too. My favorite part of the book was the insert with William’s book in it. Happily, the pages are made from construction paper that feels so different in your hand. When I turned the page and saw it I cheered aloud. It is such a change from the finished and lovely illustrations in the rest of the book to move to these rougher drawings and paper. What an important element to embrace.
Fans of Joyce will love this glimpse of him as a child and it may inspire children to try their own hands at writing. Get this funny book out when creative writing projects are coming to help inspire really creative responses. Appropriate for ages 7-9.
Joyce tells the story with a wonderful tone. He explains the earlier time when he grew up and children played outside rather than at playdates, when there were only three channels on the TV, and when funnies in the paper were a huge part of your day. It is a memoir about a kid who doesn’t quite fit into the school mold. It’s less about the grownups and how they dealt with him, though that is there in the background and more about him as a child and what he loved to do even then. It’s a testament to following your dream, to doing what you love and what you have always loved.
The illustrations are done in Joyce’s signature style, one that embraces vintage elements but also shines with a modern feel too. My favorite part of the book was the insert with William’s book in it. Happily, the pages are made from construction paper that feels so different in your hand. When I turned the page and saw it I cheered aloud. It is such a change from the finished and lovely illustrations in the rest of the book to move to these rougher drawings and paper. What an important element to embrace.
Fans of Joyce will love this glimpse of him as a child and it may inspire children to try their own hands at writing. Get this funny book out when creative writing projects are coming to help inspire really creative responses. Appropriate for ages 7-9.
October 13, 2015
Any book with a title that includes the word booger is an immediate win for my fifth grade boys!
In the style of Amelia with her notebooks and creative doodles, young Billy Joyce does his best to make school as interesting as possible...to the chagrin of his teachers and principal. His creativity becomes his greatest asset when the school librarian announces a book writing contest, and in a brilliant show of design in publishing, Billy's short story is included right inside this book. Billy writes about his very own SuperBooger who teams up with Billy to become the greatest math advising team this universe has ever seen! But...Billy DOESN'T win the contest...at least not officially.
However, Billy does learn a very important lesson. Creativity matters. And this is a lesson that benefits any elementary school student (and teacher). Our kids are told so often to focus on conventions and neatness - at times to the detriment of creativity. This book can spark their imaginations once again - to imagine the world as it could be! This book illustrates right-brain innovation at its best! Teachers who want to see their students dream and create and imagine should definitely read Billy's Boogers with their students.
In the style of Amelia with her notebooks and creative doodles, young Billy Joyce does his best to make school as interesting as possible...to the chagrin of his teachers and principal. His creativity becomes his greatest asset when the school librarian announces a book writing contest, and in a brilliant show of design in publishing, Billy's short story is included right inside this book. Billy writes about his very own SuperBooger who teams up with Billy to become the greatest math advising team this universe has ever seen! But...Billy DOESN'T win the contest...at least not officially.
However, Billy does learn a very important lesson. Creativity matters. And this is a lesson that benefits any elementary school student (and teacher). Our kids are told so often to focus on conventions and neatness - at times to the detriment of creativity. This book can spark their imaginations once again - to imagine the world as it could be! This book illustrates right-brain innovation at its best! Teachers who want to see their students dream and create and imagine should definitely read Billy's Boogers with their students.
July 21, 2016
Children's Book
I teach 4th grade. I have had students just like the one mentioned in this book. I have grown to love these little quirky kids- the ones who are creative in their own way. As a teacher I have to be concerned with how much they are learning and improving, but I have come to realize how each individual has gifts and I try to find ways in which they can shine. I loved this book- especially the illustrations. It would be an excellent picture book to read to the class- before attempting to write a personal story ( it is a memoir)- or it could be used at the beginning of the year to talk about each of our gifts, our strengths and what we can achieve- anyway you want to use it- for life lessons, or writing lessons, it is a clever book. I personally thought the book he wrote as a child was very funny too. The line that his sister said when he was more normal was very funny too- for one student I had, his sister just kept telling me he was so weird.
I teach 4th grade. I have had students just like the one mentioned in this book. I have grown to love these little quirky kids- the ones who are creative in their own way. As a teacher I have to be concerned with how much they are learning and improving, but I have come to realize how each individual has gifts and I try to find ways in which they can shine. I loved this book- especially the illustrations. It would be an excellent picture book to read to the class- before attempting to write a personal story ( it is a memoir)- or it could be used at the beginning of the year to talk about each of our gifts, our strengths and what we can achieve- anyway you want to use it- for life lessons, or writing lessons, it is a clever book. I personally thought the book he wrote as a child was very funny too. The line that his sister said when he was more normal was very funny too- for one student I had, his sister just kept telling me he was so weird.
June 10, 2015
I love William Joyce! His books are always so interesting and his illustrations are gorgeous. BUT, BILLY'S BOOGER is amazing. I love that it is built around the actual children's book he wrote as a child (which is included in this book between the pages of the story). This is a great book to share with those students who dream of being authors and illustrators. Just because your work doesn't win an award, doesn't mean that people don't love it. We know that as adults, too. Some of the books we love don't win awards, right?
October 4, 2015
Amazing that a book about a booger can bring me to tears and connect in such an emotional way. I love that Billy's Booger celebrates the scrutiny that "different" kids go through and also the amount of work that it takes to make it in school and life. Every writer needs to read this book, which includes elementary students to beginning aspiring authors and seasoned ones, too. The theme of never giving up rings through this story with a resounding, "Go for it!"
July 21, 2016
Beautiful illustrations, with a retro/ historical style. It is a memoir which is notable.
Creative- inclusion of the book that young Billy wrote for a school comp- These pages are textured and smaller than the rest of the book. This makes for a very engaging read.
Lesson: marks at school aren't everything. Creativity is important and respect from your peers counts.
Creative- inclusion of the book that young Billy wrote for a school comp- These pages are textured and smaller than the rest of the book. This makes for a very engaging read.
Lesson: marks at school aren't everything. Creativity is important and respect from your peers counts.
February 26, 2022
I am not normally a fan of booger jokes. But I trust William Joyce. This is a book by the adult Joyce about how he came to write his first book when he was ten or so, a book called Billy's Booger, which is included.
Very cool.
Library copy
Very cool.
Library copy
July 27, 2015
Loved the inclusion of the hand-drawn comic from the author's childhood. A funny and unique memoir including a genuine childhood artifact, and I loved the message- sometimes work created and acclaimed within traditional boundaries is not the most interesting or useful to an audience.
June 11, 2015
Love love love love love.
June 12, 2015
It's not too often you can say there's a mentor text to use when teaching writing that centers around a booger... I bet you'll get the kids' attention!
Laugh out loud funny.
Laugh out loud funny.
October 24, 2017
I expected it too be very gross, but it wasn't, really. More about Billy writing his first book.
April 16, 2018
This book is laugh out loud funny! Love this story!!
August 22, 2019
Aw, it's so sweet!
Read
August 31, 2018it was very funny and brought a sense of childhood back.
August 31, 2018
Good'
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 14, 2018
I think that this book was very good and I actually love it.
February 19, 2021
This is why I teach. For all the weird kids.
February 8, 2020
Four stars for the illustrations (and because Sarah did).
October 12, 2018
Billy's Booger is a children's picture book written and illustrated by William Joyce. It retells an incident from his childhood – one that probably started his career in writing.
The text is rather simplistic and straightforward. The writing has a nostalgic and timeless quality to it. It is rather inventive that it is a book within a book – story within a story. The illustrations were wonderfully done and brilliantly colored and Billy's childlike drawing (the book within the book) were equally wonderful.
The premise of the book is rather straightforward. It is about a boy named Billy (short for William) who loved monster films, cartoons, and comic books. However, Billy was not particularly good at school – he wishes school could be more fun like his comic books and his teachers are not particularly open to that idea. Until one day, the school's librarian announced a book-writing contest, which captivated Billy. He wrote Billy's Booger, which is provided in the book – the book within the book. He did not win first, second, third or even honorable mention, but his book was the most popular as it was check out the most.
All in all, Billy's Booger is a wonderful children's book about an imaginative boy who wrote an equally imaginable book.
The text is rather simplistic and straightforward. The writing has a nostalgic and timeless quality to it. It is rather inventive that it is a book within a book – story within a story. The illustrations were wonderfully done and brilliantly colored and Billy's childlike drawing (the book within the book) were equally wonderful.
The premise of the book is rather straightforward. It is about a boy named Billy (short for William) who loved monster films, cartoons, and comic books. However, Billy was not particularly good at school – he wishes school could be more fun like his comic books and his teachers are not particularly open to that idea. Until one day, the school's librarian announced a book-writing contest, which captivated Billy. He wrote Billy's Booger, which is provided in the book – the book within the book. He did not win first, second, third or even honorable mention, but his book was the most popular as it was check out the most.
All in all, Billy's Booger is a wonderful children's book about an imaginative boy who wrote an equally imaginable book.
November 11, 2018
Not all books about boogers are worth reading, however, when you take a highly interesting subject, sprinkle it with memoir (of a fourth grade boy) and sneak in reading and writing, you have a winner!
From the highly creative author of The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, Billy's Booger is loosely based upon the author and is sure to be another favorite. A book within a book, Billy's Booger is the story of Billy who has a great imagination and would rather draw than do math, spelling or anything. In fact, he draws on everything; math tests, books, homework. He may not get the answers right, but he has awesome drawings! Even though Billy's teacher and principal are not impressed with his drawings, the librarian holds a book making contest and Billy is convinced he will win with his story of the world's smartest booger, who helps with math problems and talking with the President. Will Billy's book win the contest?
A must read and read and read again! This book is a great way to celebrate all the kids that don't "conform to the norm" as well as used as a memoir mentor text.
From the highly creative author of The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, Billy's Booger is loosely based upon the author and is sure to be another favorite. A book within a book, Billy's Booger is the story of Billy who has a great imagination and would rather draw than do math, spelling or anything. In fact, he draws on everything; math tests, books, homework. He may not get the answers right, but he has awesome drawings! Even though Billy's teacher and principal are not impressed with his drawings, the librarian holds a book making contest and Billy is convinced he will win with his story of the world's smartest booger, who helps with math problems and talking with the President. Will Billy's book win the contest?
A must read and read and read again! This book is a great way to celebrate all the kids that don't "conform to the norm" as well as used as a memoir mentor text.
May 26, 2017
William Joyce reaches back into his past to resurrect his budding talents for writing and illustration. As the principal's "most challenging student," Billy isn't doing well at math but he certainly is creative, both at school and at home. (A delightful photo on the jacket proves the young Joyce was as creative in real life.) When there is a contest to write a book, Billy throws everything he has into creating Super Booger, certain he will win the contest.
I have loved Joyce's books since Santa Calls which still makes tears spring to my eyes just thinking about it. I love his vintage style, reminding me of the old newspaper comics series (and Billy in the story reads them as well). His stories also have a lot of heart in them.
I'm torn between 4 and 5 stars. Not sure why I just can't go for 5. I have nothing against boogers (some of my best friends are boogers) nor stories about them. I think I was mildly disappointed by some of the artwork - aw, heck. Five stars it is. There's an important lesson in here as well as a great story.
I have loved Joyce's books since Santa Calls which still makes tears spring to my eyes just thinking about it. I love his vintage style, reminding me of the old newspaper comics series (and Billy in the story reads them as well). His stories also have a lot of heart in them.
I'm torn between 4 and 5 stars. Not sure why I just can't go for 5. I have nothing against boogers (some of my best friends are boogers) nor stories about them. I think I was mildly disappointed by some of the artwork - aw, heck. Five stars it is. There's an important lesson in here as well as a great story.
May 21, 2018
A book within a book; the artist/ author's first book, from his fourth grade debut, very nearly, an autobiography! I am thankful he had such supportive parents to nurture his obvious talents.
The facsimile of his first book adds so much charm.
The grip of nostalgia took me at the turn to the title page with its illustration like the old textbooks, and classic typeface. The text of the book is in retro-style Futura with its clean lines, and the colors are vivid, as Joyce often does so well. Included is a hand-written note home that looks exactly like all of my teacher's cursive. I often wondered how they managed to look exactly the same. Even a typed mimeograph appears to pile on the memories.
Being honest, for myself, the topic has little appeal. That aside, this is an imaginative work, and a time-honored tale of the underdog defeating the skeptic by being outrageously popular, famous, and doing exactly what he wanted.
The facsimile of his first book adds so much charm.
The grip of nostalgia took me at the turn to the title page with its illustration like the old textbooks, and classic typeface. The text of the book is in retro-style Futura with its clean lines, and the colors are vivid, as Joyce often does so well. Included is a hand-written note home that looks exactly like all of my teacher's cursive. I often wondered how they managed to look exactly the same. Even a typed mimeograph appears to pile on the memories.
Being honest, for myself, the topic has little appeal. That aside, this is an imaginative work, and a time-honored tale of the underdog defeating the skeptic by being outrageously popular, famous, and doing exactly what he wanted.
July 15, 2018
This is a wonderful children's fiction picture book, written and illustrated by William Joyce. The story is about a boy who has imagination to spare and has a knack for getting sent to the principals office. There is a contest at school to write a book, and he writes a story from the perspective of his booger. The illustrations are on point throughout the book, from the realistic, newspaper style comics, to the hand drawn in child-like writing memoir. The illustrations bring the story to life and make you feel for Billy. I could see using this book with all grades K-12. The story is one about perseverance, trying your best, receiving feedback and using that feedback as inspiration to try again. I think our children need more perseverance these days and this book would be wonderful to help them learn and explore this concept. I also think that any age would be able to find humor in the pages of this book and that's what makes it special.
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