The Book with No Pictures from B.J. Novak won’t win awards for its illustrations. True to the title, there are none. Yet a book with no pictures can still be wildly entertaining and worth reading over and over. There also isn’t really a plot to speak of, but that doesn’t matter, either. The secret to this book is that it knows the secret to books: that you have to read every word on the page, no matter how embarrassing it is to do so.

This book begs to be read aloud. The whole point is to put the (adult) reader at the mercy of the text, being “forced” to read increasingly ridiculous words. If you’re reading this book to your child, I recommend you throw yourself into the drama wholeheartedly, overemphasizing the anguish at being trapped into reading such nonsense. Adults are often seen by children and fairly serious and humorless—this book is the perfect break from that!