Mr. Nogginbody Gets a Hammer by David Shannon

In this humorous children’s picture book, Mr. Nogginbody steps on a nail protruding from his living room floor, and wonders, “How in the world do I fix this thing?” He dashes off to a hardware store in search of a solution and buys a hammer.

So begins Mr. Nogginbody’s comical misadventure. His joy at successfully slamming the nail back into the floor leads him on a problem-solving mission to “fix” whatever he thinks needs fixing—the wall, a hanging framed picture, a lamp, a showerhead, flowers, and more—each slam, slam, slam leaving mayhem in its wake.

Finally, when Mr. Nogginbody sees what he thinks is a nail on his own forehead—it’s actually a bee!—he brings the hammer down to hit it and misses because the bee flies away. Suddenly, he has an epiphany: “Maybe I can’t fix everything with a hammer. Because not everything is a nail!”

Author-illustrator David Shannon is the creator of many other much-loved children’s picture books such as Duck on a Tractor and the Caldecott Honor-winning No, David! Children—and adults who read to them—will be sure to delight in the wacky, amusing cartoon drawings and witty, pithy text of David Shannon’s most recent offering. (Norton Young Readers)