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Orange Book
Not every orange goes to the supermarket. Some are used in juggling acts, some are painted by art students, and one takes part in a very strange experiment....This funny, quirky book will pique the imaginations of young children.
- GenresPicture Books
32 pages, Hardcover
First published September 15, 1992
47 people want to read
About the author
Richard McGuire
26 books164 followersRichard McGuire is a regular contributor to the New Yorker magazine. He has written and illustrated both children's books and experimental comics. His work has appeared in The New York Times, McSweeney's, Le Monde and Libération. He has written and directed two omnibus feature films, designed and manufactured his own line of toys, and is also the founder and bass player of the post-punk band Liquid Liquid.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 22, 2008
i love these illustrations. richard mcguire blew me away with his segment of fear(s) of the dark, and while these are far less creepy, i still love his style.
January 8, 2020
One of a number of examples that children's literature scholar Leonard S. Marcus gave, in his essay "Back to the Future: Retro picture books — déjà vu all over again?" (which can be found in the January/February 2010 edition of The Horn Book Magazine), of picture-books harking back to the Constructivist style of the early twentieth century, Richard McGuire's The Orange Book is (not surprisingly) a picture-book with an incredibly strong visual presence. It's very graphic (is that the right word?), with bold shapes, stylized forms, and a limited color range - just blue, with the occasional orange - that combine to make it very striking.
The "story" (such as it is) of fourteen oranges from the same tree, and where they end up, feels very much like a vehicle for the artwork here, but that's OK, since the artwork is so very appealing. I don't know much about Constructivism, so this may be redundant (or self-evident), but I myself was reminded of old posters I have seen, and while I can't say that I found the style beautiful, it certainly "spoke" to me, in a stylized visual language that felt very familiar, and very immediate. I'm looking forward to picking up another of McGuire's picture-books (also mentioned by Marcus), Night Becomes Day , so the artist clearly did something right!
The "story" (such as it is) of fourteen oranges from the same tree, and where they end up, feels very much like a vehicle for the artwork here, but that's OK, since the artwork is so very appealing. I don't know much about Constructivism, so this may be redundant (or self-evident), but I myself was reminded of old posters I have seen, and while I can't say that I found the style beautiful, it certainly "spoke" to me, in a stylized visual language that felt very familiar, and very immediate. I'm looking forward to picking up another of McGuire's picture-books (also mentioned by Marcus), Night Becomes Day , so the artist clearly did something right!
July 3, 2022
After reading the Peanuts in Italian and realizing it was too hard for me, this little book turns out to be exactly right. The lives of an orange. It helped that the text just described what was seen in the picture.
March 15, 2021
I don’t know what it is about this simple picture book that I just enjoy so much. The pictures are simple but fun to look at. I’m sorry this one went out of print.
February 14, 2026
lindos desenhos em perspectiva
December 4, 2012
A perfect creation. One of my favorite picture books, ever.
This is not a counting book. I like to think of it as a story tickler disguised as a counting book.
This book hits it out of the park for story time, and is a mainstay at bedtime each night at our home.
Each spread has simple text, depicting the transit of 14 oranges from the grove along the food/supply chain. But the writing is really only the beginning. It's really more like McGuire has given the least amount of descriptive text possible that doesn't limit the story his pictures are telling.
Each spread can take that simple line of text much farther into the story of you let it. Exactly what you want a picture book to do!
And yes, your kid will read into each picture here if you let them-there's plenty for children & adults to read & embellish on each page. I've been amazed at how my son keeps "telling" me this story each night now for months!
The retro art-graphic illustrations (you may recognize McGuire's style from his work on many covers of The New Yorker), make each orange pop out of the pages. And there are plenty of inside quirky jokes to give parents a chuckle too-just check out the guy eating at the diner counter on 4's page.
My copy is a hardcover a re-issue from the early 2000's. If you can get your hands on a copy-highly recommend for you toddler's book shelf!
This is not a counting book. I like to think of it as a story tickler disguised as a counting book.
This book hits it out of the park for story time, and is a mainstay at bedtime each night at our home.
Each spread has simple text, depicting the transit of 14 oranges from the grove along the food/supply chain. But the writing is really only the beginning. It's really more like McGuire has given the least amount of descriptive text possible that doesn't limit the story his pictures are telling.
Each spread can take that simple line of text much farther into the story of you let it. Exactly what you want a picture book to do!
And yes, your kid will read into each picture here if you let them-there's plenty for children & adults to read & embellish on each page. I've been amazed at how my son keeps "telling" me this story each night now for months!
The retro art-graphic illustrations (you may recognize McGuire's style from his work on many covers of The New Yorker), make each orange pop out of the pages. And there are plenty of inside quirky jokes to give parents a chuckle too-just check out the guy eating at the diner counter on 4's page.
My copy is a hardcover a re-issue from the early 2000's. If you can get your hands on a copy-highly recommend for you toddler's book shelf!
May 31, 2015
I read this because I had just read McGuire's Here, which is an art comics book not for kids. We know McGuire in the world of art maybe most through his New Yorker covers, which is a prestigious event for any artist and an influential site as well for any artist. But this is a picture book, which would appear to masquerade as one of those 1-10 counting books, and that IS one purpose for it, I suppose, to learn numbers. But McGuire dedicates the book to his Mom and Modigliani, so you can see it is both a tribute to his Mom who read him kid books and an art book, with bold Modiglianish color and lines.
And the story develops with a Lemony Snicket-like surprising turn on your expectations for each numbered orange, and a kind of cute surprising ending. It isn't maybe as warm and fuzzy like a lot of children's illustrated books, though a few pages made me smile a lot. It teaches kids and adult readers in its two page spread drawings about color and line, and maybe Modigliani, with as few words as possible so you can pay attention to the way the picture tells the story. It's one of several children's book McGuire did in the nineties, this one out in 1992.
And the story develops with a Lemony Snicket-like surprising turn on your expectations for each numbered orange, and a kind of cute surprising ending. It isn't maybe as warm and fuzzy like a lot of children's illustrated books, though a few pages made me smile a lot. It teaches kids and adult readers in its two page spread drawings about color and line, and maybe Modigliani, with as few words as possible so you can pay attention to the way the picture tells the story. It's one of several children's book McGuire did in the nineties, this one out in 1992.
June 2, 2011
book for complimentary colors orange and blue--definitely older, but nice just the same--I don't think it's worth the effort to get it through inter-library loan
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews