Joyce, William

A Day with Wilbur Robinson

Come meet the Robinsons: Young Wilbur has a robot. Uncle Art has his own flying saucer. Cousin Laszlo has an antigravity device. The butler is an octopus.

It's snowing in the east wing. And somebody left the Time Machine on, so . . . Well, perhaps you'd care to read what happens next.

From William Joyce, creator of the Emmy-winning Rolie Polie Olie as well as author and illustrator of a stack of whimsy-based entertainments for children and like-minded adults.

Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo (Reading Rainbow Book)

Proclaimed "the most adorable of dinos" by The New York Times, Bob is grander and greener than ever in a definitive new edition of modern picture book classic. This deluxe volume features seven new illustrations, an additional adventure, and a song ("The Ballad of Dinosaur Bob"), with easy-to-play arrangements.

The Leaf Men

William Joyce's previous children's books, especially Dinosaur Bob and A Day With Wilbur Robinson, have delighted kid-kids and grown-up-kids alike with their strange, stylish illustrations and their slightly warped sensibility. In his latest book, The Leaf Men, things get even stranger, as the reader is plunged into the teeming mysterious world of an old woman's garden. When the old lady falls ill, and her garden falls into disorder, the mythical Leaf Men must be called upon to vanquish the evil Spider Queen and return things to order. Arachnid rights groups may quarrel with the choice of the spider as the villainess, but just about everyone else will marvel at Joyce's invention and his weird, detailed paintings.

The brave good bugs march off to save the garden . . .

First, they must fight the evil Spider Queen . . .

Before summoning the Leaf Men to save the day . . .

But what about the mystery of the Long-Lost Toy?

Here is ancient elfin magic, epic adventure, and a bugle salute to the power of memory, loyalty and love as resounding as Robin Hood's call to his Merry Men!

Rolie Polie Olie

Any book that features robots dancing around in their underpants is a book worth owning. William Joyce--creator of Dinosaur Bob and George Shrinks--brings his expansive, wildly colored illustrations to the story of a cute, buglike robot and his family. Rolie Polie Olie lives on a faraway planet with his mom and pop, his sister Zowie, and his doggie Spot. They spend a pretty ordinary day playing, working, eating, and getting ready for bed in this delightfully modest tale of robotic family happiness. Joyce's bouncy prose is engaging enough to be read aloud time and again: "You're Rolie hot and Polie tired. Your motor's zapped. Your piston's fired. Yes, okey dokey is the day when all you Rolie did was play." The illustrations are vintage Joyce, with a 1930s deco look that's polished without being soulless. The pictorial lushness is a nice counterpoint to the simplicity of the tale, which devotes a grand full-page spread to the little-known fact that "The Rolie Polie Rumba Dance was always done in underpants!" --Claire Dederer

Rolie Polie Olie lives way up high in the Rolie Polie sky with his mom, his pop, his sister, Zowie, and his dog, Spot. Follow Olie as he spends his day having fun under the Rolie Polie sun.

Spend a day with the Emmy–award winning robots in Rolie Polie Olie's family, complete with the Rolie Polie Rumba Dance done in underpants!

George Shrinks

He's smart.
He's swift.
He's small.
The heroic George is back!

William Joyce, the creator of many best-selling and award-winning picture books, including Dinosaur Bob, Santa Calls, and Rolie Polie Olie, presents a new deluxe edition of George shrinks. Now an animated Saturday-morning program on PBS, the classic picture book that started it all will charm readers of all sizes.

Santa Calls

Gather round for an Extraordinary Adventure, circa Christmas 1908, Abilene, Texas. The players are a boy named Art (devoted to "the making of inventions, the quest for adventure, and the fighting and smashing of crime"); his best friend, a Comanche boy named Spaulding; and Art's scorned little sister, Esther. One dusty December day, they find a huge wooden crate accompanied by a note that says, "Open the box. Assemble the contents. Come NORTH. Yours, S.C." The next thing you know, the intrepid trio sets off for the North Pole in the freshly assembled Yuletide Flyer, at Santa's cryptic request. Let the swashbuckling adventure begin! Santa's home is the glittering metropolis of Toyland, described as "the best of the old, the best of the new, and the best that is yet to be." But what's this? Dark Elves and their evil Queen? No one bargained for danger in the North Pole. After a dashing display of heroic and ingenious maneuvering, however, the three children are delivered back home in time for Christmas. But why did Santa call in the first place? He tells them, "Some secrets are best left unsolved." The real secret of this rollicking Christmas tale lies in two facsimile letters attached at the end of the book--Esther's touching note to Santa and his reply. Beloved illustrator William Joyce, creator of George Shrinks and Dinosaur Bob, has managed an unusual feat: an original Christmas story, breathtaking artwork, and adventure tale all rolled into one. (Ages 5 to 9)

Art Atchinson Aimesworth -- inventor, crime fighter, and allaround whiz kid-journeys north with his sister, Esther, and his pal, Spaulding, by special invitation from Santa himself. But why did Santa call? Now available in a new hardcover edition, this truly Joyce-ian crusade features villains and swashbuckling adventure, concluding with a most spectacular and touching Christmas celebration.

A holiday extravaganza like no other, by the creator of Rolie Polie Olie, Snowie Rolie, Sleepy Time Olie, Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures wirh the Family Lazardo, and George Shrinks.

Big Time Olie (Rolie Polie Olie)

"I'm a little bit bigger, not a little bit smaller. I'm a little bit taller—I'm growing Rolie up!"

If Rolie Polie Olie grows a little every day, when will he be big enough?

The World of William Joyce Scrapbook

Come play with William Joyce! Go on a treasure hunt. Decorate Easter eggs. Design Halloween costumes. Invent the un-invented. This scrapbook is your invitation to come play with the world's number-one advocate of global silliness. This is not a coffee-table tribute—if you tried to put it on a table, it would leap off, scratch its binding, and do the hokey-pokey. It's an opportunity for kids and kids-at-heart to find out what being an artist and writer is all about and take a sneak peek at the dreams and doodles of one of the industry's leading talents. Did you know that at Christmas, William Joyce decorates his living room with not one Christmas tree, but a dozen? That his very first picture book at the age of nine landed him in the principal's office for the afternoon?
Packed with a year's worth of holiday photographs, rib-tickling anecdotes, early sketches, snippets of future projects, and more, The World of William Joyce Scrapbook is your chance to take a leisurely ramble through an elegantly mischievous landscape, where adventure is de rigueur, and everything turns out A-OK.

A Day with Wilbur Robinson

No need to knock, just step right in. You're just in time to two-step with Grandfather Robinson and his dancing frog band. Cousin Laszlo is demonstrating his new antigravity device. And Uncle Art's flying saucer is parked out back.

It seems like all the Robinson relatives are here, so be prepared. And keep your head down...Uncle Gaston is testing out the family cannon.

Bently & egg

Bently Hopperton is a young frog with an artistic temperament. So when his best friend, a duck-of-the-wood named Kack Kack, suddenly abandons him to focus on hatching her newly laid egg, Bently is a bit put out.

"'Isn't it beautiful?' asked Kack Kack."

"Bently didn't know. 'It's just an egg,' he thought."

However, Bently is nothing if not loyal, so when Kack Kack asks him to watch her egg while she goes to visit her sister, he grudgingly agrees. Lonely and bored, he decides to liven up the plain white egg by painting dazzling designs on it. The egg attracts the attention of a rowdy young boy and fortunately, its extraordinary decoration saves it from an immediate smashing. Unfortunately, the boy, believing the Easter Bunny left the egg, runs off with it. Bently Hopperton to the rescue:

"'Easter Bunny, my eye,' thought Bently. 'That's a Bently Hopperton egg!... Don't worry, egg. Armed only with my wits, I'll not fail you, egg,' he vowed bravely, and took off in pursuit."

What follows is a delightfully silly romp complete with a hot air balloon that just happens to be at hand when needed, and a toy boat moored close by for a convenient getaway. William Joyce's elegant paintings and hilariously deadpan text make this a book young readers will want to keep conveniently nearby for quick getaways anytime... but especially Easter time. Joyce has written many well-loved picture books, notably Rolie Polie Olie. (Ages 4 to 10) --Emilie Coulter

Bently Hopperton is an artistic frog, pressed into egg-sitting by his friend Kack Kack the Duck. Bently can't resist painting Kack Kack's egg, and thanks to his dazzling brushwork, his charge is soon mistaken for an Easter egg and kidnapped. How Bently gets the egg back to the nest, and what happens when Kack Kack returns, proves to be an adventure of a lifetime for a young frog."Bently is miffed when his friend Kack Kack the duck ignores him to brood in her nest. After she leaves him in charge of her single egg, Bently decides to paint it. [But] when a boy mistakes it for an Easter egg and runs off with it, Bently knows his duty. . . . A book that revels in the joys of spring and song, friendship and fatherhood, and the spirit of adventure . . . a classic tour de force." —H.

Notable Children's Books of 1993 (ALA)
Best Books of 1992 (SLJ)
100 Books for Reading and Sharing 1992 (NY Public Library)