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Elvis Lives: And Other Anagrams
The author of three collections of palindromes offers a new collection of anagrams, re-arranging words and phrases into funny and often revealing new combinations.
80 pages, Hardcover
First published April 11, 2000
About the author
Jon Agee
55 books166 followersI grew up in Nyack, New York, just up the street from the Hudson River. In our house, there was always an art project going on.
My early drawings were very animated: a lot of stuff zipping around, airplanes, racing cars, football players. No surprise my first published drawing was a pack of rats running along a highway (The Rat Race). I did that for the New York Times Op Ed page when I was still in high school.
I went to college at The Cooper Union School of Art in New York City. I studied painting, sculpture and filmmaking, but what I loved doing most—in my spare time—was drawing cartoons and comic strips.
When I graduated, I hauled my pile of doodles into the offices of a bunch of editors, with the wild notion that somebody might publish them. When that failed, I wrote a story for kids to go with my pictures (If Snow Falls). It was two sentences long (which counts, by the way). Frances Foster, a wonderful editor at Random House, saw something in that book and signed me up.
The next book, Ellsworth, was about a dog who teaches economics at a university. When he gets home, he throws off his clothes and acts like a dog, which is fine, until some fellow teachers discover this and he loses his job. Somebody told me that Ellsworth was a story about "being yourself." I never realized it had a moral.
I moved to another publisher with Ludlow Laughs, the story of a grumpy guy who laughs in his sleep. This book was doing very poorly until the comedienne Phyliss Diller read it on PBS's Reading Rainbow. It stayed in print for over twenty years.
My fourth book, The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau, was a hit. One of the first people to see it and give it the thumb's up—literally, hot off the press—was Maurice Sendak. We bumped into each other at the printers. It was a lucky first meeting, and happily not our last.
That was all a long time ago. Since then I've written many other picture books, illustrated a few by other authors, and created a series of offbeat wordplay books, beginning with the book of palindromes, Go Hang a Salami! I'm a Lasagna Hog!
I visit schools across the country and sometimes around the globe. I live with my wife, Audrey, in San Francisco.
My early drawings were very animated: a lot of stuff zipping around, airplanes, racing cars, football players. No surprise my first published drawing was a pack of rats running along a highway (The Rat Race). I did that for the New York Times Op Ed page when I was still in high school.
I went to college at The Cooper Union School of Art in New York City. I studied painting, sculpture and filmmaking, but what I loved doing most—in my spare time—was drawing cartoons and comic strips.
When I graduated, I hauled my pile of doodles into the offices of a bunch of editors, with the wild notion that somebody might publish them. When that failed, I wrote a story for kids to go with my pictures (If Snow Falls). It was two sentences long (which counts, by the way). Frances Foster, a wonderful editor at Random House, saw something in that book and signed me up.
The next book, Ellsworth, was about a dog who teaches economics at a university. When he gets home, he throws off his clothes and acts like a dog, which is fine, until some fellow teachers discover this and he loses his job. Somebody told me that Ellsworth was a story about "being yourself." I never realized it had a moral.
I moved to another publisher with Ludlow Laughs, the story of a grumpy guy who laughs in his sleep. This book was doing very poorly until the comedienne Phyliss Diller read it on PBS's Reading Rainbow. It stayed in print for over twenty years.
My fourth book, The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau, was a hit. One of the first people to see it and give it the thumb's up—literally, hot off the press—was Maurice Sendak. We bumped into each other at the printers. It was a lucky first meeting, and happily not our last.
That was all a long time ago. Since then I've written many other picture books, illustrated a few by other authors, and created a series of offbeat wordplay books, beginning with the book of palindromes, Go Hang a Salami! I'm a Lasagna Hog!
I visit schools across the country and sometimes around the globe. I live with my wife, Audrey, in San Francisco.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 31, 2016
Companion to Palindromania and Smart Feller Fart Smeller and others by Agee. Simple joke book, really. All ages. If you like passively consuming (as opposed to creating, as in brain teasers and puzzles) these kinds of word play, you'll surely enjoy these. If not, skip. I'm sure there are fun word-play websites and blogs online but they won't have the lol pictures that add so much to each anagram.
My favorite is probably the paneled strip "committees... cost me time." Or maybe "twelve plus one = eleven plus two." Or maybe "pub's motto = bottoms up" because of the picture....
It would be fun to use this in school, maybe for 9-12 year-olds especially.
And, btw, credit is given at the end. Agee did the art, but most of the words & phrases he found or was given.
My favorite is probably the paneled strip "committees... cost me time." Or maybe "twelve plus one = eleven plus two." Or maybe "pub's motto = bottoms up" because of the picture....
It would be fun to use this in school, maybe for 9-12 year-olds especially.
And, btw, credit is given at the end. Agee did the art, but most of the words & phrases he found or was given.
February 20, 2018
Irresistible word play! Clever drawings and clever anagrams -- rearranging letters in a word or phrase to create other words and phrases. Pair with William Steig's "CDC" and "CDB"
June 7, 2018
Who comes UP with this stuff? Very funny!
February 26, 2019
Another delightful offer from a word-loving author/illustrator. Something readers of any age can appreciate.
May 12, 2021
So clever, so very clever!
October 14, 2022
Some of the anagrams were decent, but it seemed like the author should have been able to come up with some that were slightly more sensical.
February 20, 2010
I'm reading through as many of John Agee's word play books as I can get from the library. These are the kind of books that I'd like to slowly collect, much like William Steig's CDB books. This book is full of anagrams, a word or phrase made up by scrambling the letters from another word or phrase. This book would be so fun to read with kids, which I think is one of the main reasons to have kids in general: you get to read and share so many fun books. Some neato entries in the book include:
"Southern California -- Hot sun, or life in a car."
"Thug ponders -- Drops the gun"
"The best things in life are free -- Nail-biting refreshes the feet."
"A psychiatrist -- Sit, chat, pay, sir."
"Southern California -- Hot sun, or life in a car."
"Thug ponders -- Drops the gun"
"The best things in life are free -- Nail-biting refreshes the feet."
"A psychiatrist -- Sit, chat, pay, sir."
November 29, 2013
3.5 stars
October 24, 2010
Would be a fun book to read along with other word play books, such as "Parts" etc
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews