JON AGEE

By: Lauren Burgess

ALL ABOUT JON AGEE
Jon Agee grew up in Nyack, New York. His family always had projects going
on which inspired his passion: drawing. Agee recalls his early drawings to
be very animated and even got a job publishing drawings for the New York
Times Op Ed page when he was still in high school. After graduation, Agee
attended The Cooper Union School of Art in NYC. He studied painting,
sculpting and filmmaking, but ultimately decided cartoon drawing was his
passion. After college Jon took his drawings to tons of editors, but when
that failed he began to draw picture books. His very first book IF SNOW
FALLS was seen and published by Frances Foster and the rest was history
for Jon.
Since Jon has written several other picture books, illustrated a few, and
created his offbeat word play books, the first of which is GO HANG A
SALAMI! Im A LASAGNA HOG!
 MR. PUTNEYS QUACKING
DOG
Mr. Putneys Quacking Dog is a short book
full of puns. The book starts out explaining
how Mr. Putney has all sorts of unusual
animals, and he asks the reader to guess
their names. You soon learn how they help or
accompany Mr. Putney with his daily
activities. For example: who was Mr. Putney
up in the morning? An alarmadillo The short
book continues with all sorts of hilarious
puns and gets its title from the question:
What do you call Mr. Putneys quacking
dog? A Duckshund.
 ORANGUTAN TONGS
Orangutan Tong is 47 pages of
quirky poems and rhymes. With no
perfect story line, Orangutan Tongs
is an easy, fun, mind boggling read
that brings fourth abstract thoughts
and ideas to its reader(s). Full of
laughter, these poems are great for
bed time stories or casual reading.
 ELVIS LIVES!
AND OTHER ANAGRAMS
An anagram is a word, phrase, or name formed
by rearranging the letters of another, such as
Jon Agees book ELVIS LIVES! Each page of this
book contains an individual cartoon that
matches with the anagram used. A few
examples are:
The eyes, they see
Ulysses S. Grant, Try sun-glasses
Ed won pie, open wide!
Poetry, try Poe
Dormitory, Dirty room
 GO HANG A SALAMI! IM A
LASAGNA HOG!
AND OTHER PALINDROMES
A palindrome is a word, phrase, number, or
other sequence of characters which read a
logical way forwards or backwards. Jon
Agees GOHANG A SALAMI! IM A LASAGNA
HOG! Is a book of palindromes that read
differently depending on if you start
forwards or backwards. Each page consists
of its own palindrome and cartoon to
explain the scene, no matter how
outrageous.
Pull up, Bob, Pull up!
Flower? Ew, a Werewolf!
Oozy rat in a sanitary zoo
 WHO ORDERED THE JUMBO
SHRIMP?
AND OTHER OXYMORONS
This book is a slew of random oxymoron's with drawings to accompany the
word play. Among Jumbo Shrimp some oxymorons he uses includes:
Freezer burn
Calculated risk
Black light
Hopeless optimist
Accidentally on purpose
Summer school
Small miracle
AWARDS
Best illustrated Children's Book designation,New York
Times,and Notable Book selection, American Library
Association (ALA), both forThe Incredible Painting of Felix
Clousseau;Best Illustrated Children's Book
designation,New York Times,forThe Return of Freddy
LeGrand;Best Illustrated Children's Book designation,New
York Times,forDmitri the Astronaut; Los Angeles
TimesBest Book of the Year selection, and ALA Notable
Children's Book selection, both forMilo's Hat Trick.
COMMON THEMES
Common themes among Agees work includes
anagrams, palindromes, oxymoron's, tongue twisters,
spoonerisms, adventure, abstract, and comedy.
His work is also greatly known for his hilarious an
accurate cartoon illustrations.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES
http://www.jonagee.com/
http://
www.encyclopedia.com/people/science-and-technology/space-exploration-b
iographies/jon-agee
http://
www.scholastic.com/teachers/bookwizard/books-by/jon-agee#cart/cleanup
<a href="http://biography.jrank.org/pages/1119/Agee-Jon-1960-Awards-
Honors.html">Jon Agee (1960-) - Awards, Honors</a>