Nothing Rhymes with Orange

by Adam Rex

A perfect laugh-out-loud, read-aloud tale from New York Times bestselling author Adam Rex: We all know nothing rhymes with orange, but how does that make Orange feel? Well, left out, obviously! When a fruit parade gets together to sing a song about how wonderful they are—and the song happens to rhyme—Orange can't help but feel like it's impossible to ever fit in. But when one particularly intuitive Apple notices how Orange is feeling, the entire English language begins to become a bit more inclusive.

• A charming book that teaches lessons about friendship and inspires conversations about inclusiveness and cherishing our differences
• The bright and big illustrations paired with funny rhymes are sure to bring a smile to readers of all ages
• Adam Rex is the author and illustrator of many beloved picture books and novels, including the New York Times bestseller Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich, and has worked with the likes of Jon Scieszka, Mac Barnett, and Jeff Kinney

A Huffington Post Best Book of the Year: Vibrant illustrations, enjoyable rhyming text, and a sweet, happy ending make Nothing Rhymes with Orange a book you'll keep coming back to time and time again.

• Great read-aloud book for families and classrooms
• Books for kids ages 5-6
• Books for kindergarten and up

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Humor, Food, Poetry, Fiction, Storytime

48 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

Adam Rex grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, the middle of three children. He was neither the smart one (older brother) or the cute one (younger sister), but he was the one who could draw. He took a lot of art classes as a kid, trying to learn to draw better, and started painting when he was 11. And later in life he was drawn down to Tucson in order to hone his skills, get a BFA from the University of Arizona, and meet his physicist wife Marie (who is both the smart and cute one).

Adam is nearsighted, bad at all sports, learning to play the theremin, and usually in need of a shave. He can carry a tune, if you don't mind the tune getting dropped and stepped on occasionally. He never remembers anyone's name until he's heard it at least three times. He likes animals, spacemen, Mexican food, Ethiopian food, monsters, puppets, comic books, 19th century art, skeletons, bugs, and robots.

Garlic and crosses are useless against Adam. Sunlight has been shown to be at least moderately effective. A silver bullet does the trick. Pretty much any bullet, really.

Reviews

[Sheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Orange is always the odd one out, but some astute fruit quickly find a way to make him a part of the in-crowd. A witty and entertaining read that will be enjoyed by both kids and adults.

[Hannah · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a fruity mess! I read it for kids' storytime at work and it was one of the least engaging books I've been assigned in awhile. For the first few pages, the bright fruit pictures were engaging, and the kids were expecting a good story. By the fourth page, their attention was gone.
-Rhymes are geared toward older kids, but story is simplistic
-Too many words only older kids would know: quince/mince, etc
-No storyline that engages their senses; only separate rhymes on each page
-Who in the world thought up putting in Neitzsche? His phrase certainly doesn't rhyme with anything
-Rhymes were of things young kids don't identify with, such as dating.
-Smorange is the rhyme. Not only is it difficult to pronounce, but it contains the entire word. That's not a classic rhyme.

In the end, the kids reacted to this about like they would have to a story in another language. The most interested kid I had was one, and he liked it because he liked the bright colors. He certainly didn't understand the story.

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has Friedrich Nietzsche in it - holding a copy of his book Thus Spoke Zarathustra! That alone makes it one of my favorite books for this year! When you feel as if you are not part of a group you start to question who you are: definite questions pertaining to 'der Wille zur Macht' if applied in a social science context! Orange is faced with this dilemma...how will 'he' come to terms with it?

[Manybooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

While the poetry of Adam Rex' Nothing Rhymes with Orange certainly is punny and silly, personally, I have found the majority of the texts for Nothing Rhymes with Orange rather forced and for all intents and purposes as trying way too hard to be funny, to be entertaining and diverting, but not really all that much succeeding (and considering that the central messages of belonging, of friendship, of not leaving orange as a fruit out because nothing rhymes with it are indeed sweet enough, with a bit of an intended pun here, but pretty standardly simple, there is also in my opinion quite a major sense of disconnect in Nothing Rhymes with Orange between the often rather involved verses and complicated vocabulary choices and the intended age group, the so called picture book crowd). And the accompanying illustrations for Nothing Rhymes with Orange, although I do realise that many seem to consider them fun and colourful, they have definitely not at all been to my aesthetic tastes, but much too cartoon-like, too busy, distracting and visually frustrating, visually annoying.

But still, and even with my rather ho-hum and disappointed reaction to text and accompanying images, I would probably have given Nothing Rhymes With Orange a low three star rating instead of but one star, had Adam Rex not included German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in Nothing Rhymes with Orange. For not only does it make no logical sense whatsoever to me to have the latter appear as an image in Nothing Rhymes with Orange (except that it makes me wonder whether Rex somehow wants to actively show off how culturally and philosophically with it he supposedly is), well, if Adam Rex really wanted Nietzsche to speak in German, he should NOT be using the noun Frucht but the noun Obst , for while Frucht can certainly mean fruit in German, if one is talking about fruit collectively and plurally (like a basket of fruit, or different types of fruit) according to correct German usage, one would and should ALWAYS use Obst instead. And furthermore, and really, what does an image of Friedrich Nietzsche exclaiming about fruit have to do with nothing rhyming with orange?

[Courtney Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book ever!!! Seriously so so good, aaaaaaaahhhhhh the orange 🍊 and just wait till you get to the rhyme 🤣🤣

[Melki · Rating 5 out of 5]

FRUIT! They're healthy happy colorful and cute!

This is the clever and silly tale of the orange who'd like to be in this book, but has a name that's hard to . . . well, you know.





I loved the whole wacky presentation, but then I'm a sucker for fruits with faces.

[La Coccinelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

There really is no word that rhymes with orange...

This is completely silly. At first glance, it seems overly simple. After all, it's just a bunch of photographs of fruit with faces drawn on. But the expressions are pretty funny, and as the book goes on, those characters really become characters. Then things get really strange when Nietzsche shows up. (No, I'm not kidding.)

All in all, this was ridiculous. But I'm still smiling about it, so I guess it wasn't that bad!

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's only one word for a book that has an orange as a main character and an appearance by Nietzsche. But I don't know what that word could be.

[Megan Maloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This picture book is nuts and I love it.

[KC · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was funny, sweet, and wicked fun. For a bit older crowd.

[Alex Baugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never thought I would ever read a book about fruit that is so wildly funny and silly that I was laughing out loud from start to finish, and where, in the middle of a children’s book, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and his work Thus Spoke Zarathustra would make an appearance, as well. Well, that all happens here, and apparently I found this book much more amusing that the poor orange that could find nothing to rhyme itself with. Apples, pears, grapes, peaches, cherries, even kiwi and quince are all included and seem to be able to be rhymed about how good they are. But poor orange is feeling really dejected and left out. But wait, it seems the other fruit have noticed orange. Will orange finally find a rhyme, too? This is an off the wall but powerful parable about difference and inclusion, with equally zany illustrations that still manage to convey orange’s feelings. I loved this book.

[Hillary · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars just for the Nietzsche

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absurdly silly and the first picture book I have ever read referencing Friedrich Nietzsche.

[Sandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not sure who the intended audience is. Too wordy for young kids and not particularly engaging, too young for kids who might enjoy the orange's commentary, then off the rails into not funny adultland?

[Jana · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun picture book this is! Not only do you have the fun of rhyming words and awesome illustrations in which fruit is photographed in very humorous ways, but you have a terrific message about friendship and inclusivity. All of the pieces of fruit have gotten together to participate in a terrific poem, but orange feels left out because there are no rhyming words for him. As the poem goes along, everyone has a part but him. This would be great to share with young readers to start a conversation about ways to let everyone have a part to play.

[Jennifer M · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was great!!! I loved all the rhymes, even the ones with words that might need to be explained to children.

I don't think the book was too rhyme-y as a previous commenter stated.(The title literally tells you that you'll be hearing rhymes). Kids love rhymes and funny sentences! I gave Orange a high squeaky voice while reading it out loud. (It's about selling the story to the kids😄.)

[Jennifer (JenIsNotaBookSnob) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is a whole lot of fun, but a bit complicated to read aloud as Orange's dialogue interrupts rhyming lines and throws off the rhyme. It could be fun to perform in a library program, but, it is a bit long for young kids.

Definitely a fun if a bit ridiculous picture book.

[Syntha Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bonus points to Adam Rex for rhyming "I think cherries are the berries and a lychee is just peachy. Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a book by Friedrich Nietzsche." It's always great to read a bed time story to your child that makes you laugh as well.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny. Great illustrations and text. Perfect read-aloud. And did I mention funny?

[Miss Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Impossible to read aloud and too many complex words for kids

[Bree Hill · Rating 2 out of 5]

No idea what I just read.

[Suhasa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smorangeous!

[Rachel Aranda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read during adventures in kid sitting. The kids and I didn’t like this book sadly but did eat fruit afterwards.

[teresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

cute (2, 6)

[Kaethe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is part of my 365 Kids Books challenge. For a fuller explanation see my review for 101 Amazing Facts about Australia You can see all the books on their own shelf.

Yay, reviewers list is fixed, as far as I can tell. Still waiting for the Readers list to be fixed, though.

This is my second time reading this book, and yet my take on it is unchanged from what it was three years ago. How is that even possible? Witchcraft?

***

27 January 2018

I wasn't expecting that!

[Moonkiszt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Featured in a grandma reads session.

Poor old Orange. Nothing rhymes with orange. . . .all the other fruits have rhyming opportunities, and O's are next to nothing. Messages of being flexible, staying nimble and accept all who want to contribute to community endeavor and activity is the best way to make for a better world - don't be put off by a name, look or color that doesn't seem to fit. . . simply change the fit!

My group enjoyed this quick and clever book. And they all thought Orange was the Smorangist!

[Joanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Who else (will admit) remembering Witchiepoo singing Oranges Poranges on HR Puf n Stuf? Ha-this book will bring you right back. It’s a creative manic mess, cleverly put together with collage and ink. But a children’s book that references Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra might go over like a lead balloon with the kids …will they get the jokes? Could go either way.

[Villain E · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was very funny. It works on a lot of levels. First, you have a rhyming book about fruit. Then you have the orange feeling left out and how it deals with it. You have a bit of over-the-top irony. And Friedrich Nietzsche shows up for some reason. I was laughing as I was reading this.

[Danielle]

Wildly creative.

[Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adam Rex wins again. Sure, it's probably a mixed choice for a storytime read-aloud, but for slightly older kids and their parents reading together, it's great.