The Rocket Book

When young Fritz discovers a hidden rocket in the basement and lights it, he triggers pure chaotic magic. The rocket blasts upward through a twenty-story apartment building, bursting through floors in a cascade of comic destruction. On each level, the inhabitants face increasingly absurd predicaments: startled grandparents, frightened cats, bewildered lodgers, all rendered in Newell's furiously inventive illustrations and bouncy rhyming verses. The rocket doesn't merely fly through the building it transforms ordinary life into extraordinary mayhem. What makes this 1912 picture book endure is its glorious disregard for order, its understanding that children delight in beautiful disasters. Newell, who illustrated for Lewis Carroll and Mark Twain, knew exactly how to weaponize a simple premise into sustained, escalating hilarity. Each page turn promises a new disaster, and each delivers. Perfect for reading aloud, its rhythm begs to be performed. The chaos eventually stops, but the laughter continues long after the book closes.