{{Distinguish|John Hagee}}{{Short description|Writer and illustrator (born 1960)}} {{Infobox person | name = Jon Agee | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1960}} | birth_place = Nyack, New York, U.S. | occupation = Children's book writer, illustrator, cartoonist | known_for = Picture books and collections centered on wordplay (palindromes, anagrams, etc.) | notable_works = ''Dmitri the Astronaut''<br> ''Smart Feller Fart Smeller'' | awards = Symmys palindrome award winner (2013, 2021) }} '''Jon Agee''' (born 1960) is a children's book writer and illustrator whose work centers around wordplay. Since 1981, he has published more than 31 books.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Saxon {{!}} |first=Antonia |title=Q & A with Jon Agee |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/78218-q-a-with-jon-agee.html |access-date=2024-01-26 |website=Publishers Weekly |language=en}}</ref>
== Early life and education == Agee was born in Nyack, New York in 1960. He attended Cooper Union School of Art and graduated with a BFA degree.<ref name=":2" />
== Career == Agee's art style is known for its "trademark blocky ink-and-watercolor illustrations," according to ''The New York Times''.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Paul |first=Pamela |date=September 14, 2011 |title=Boys at Play |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/books/review/boys-at-play.html |access-date=January 26, 2024 |work=The New York Times}}</ref>
In the 1990s, he wrote two musicals for children for the Tada! theater company,<ref name=":0" /> one of which was titled ''B.O.T.C.H'', short for Bureau of Turmoil, Chaos and Headaches, a fictional New York City agency in charge of disrupting city functioning.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Graeber |first=Laurel |date=January 2, 1998 |title=Family Fare |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/02/arts/family-fare.html |access-date=January 26, 2024 |work=The New York Times}}</ref>
He has written cartoons for ''The New Yorker''.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=Sarah Harrison |date=December 18, 2013 |title=Christmas for Keeps |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/books/jon-agees-little-santa-and-more.html |access-date=January 26, 2024 |work=The New York Times}}</ref>
Agee has published several books of palindromes and word play such as anagrams and oxymorons.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Hill |first=Angela |date=2021-11-17 |title=SF author Jon Agee's whimsical word play yields a book of palindromes |url=https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/11/17/sf-author-jon-agees-whimsical-word-play-yields-a-book-of-palindromes/ |access-date=2024-01-26 |newspaper=The Mercury News |language=en-US}}</ref> He became interested in them after a friend started writing them. "I liked the way absurdity and logic were intertwined," Agee said.<ref name=":0" /> In its review of Agee's book of 60 illustrated oxymorons called ''Who Ordered the Jumbo Shrimp?''<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Combes |first=Abbott |date=November 15, 1998 |title=Who Ordered the Jumbo Shrimp? |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/15/bib/981115.rv052313.html |access-date=January 26, 2024 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> ''The New York Times'' wrote that "it would be a near miss, if not a minor catastrophe, not to take the calculated risk of treating the whole family to this instant classic."<ref name=":1" />
His books include the 1996 picture book ''Dmitri the Astronaut'', ''Smart Feller Fart Smeller'', and many more.<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeeWP"/>
At the first annual Symmys palindrome awards, he won in the short palindrome category for "An igloo costs a lot, Ed! Amen. One made to last! So cool, Gina!".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Williams |first=John |date=March 11, 2013 |title=Palindrome Prize Winners Announced in Oregon |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/11/palindrome-prize-winners-announced-in-oregon/ |access-date=January 26, 2024 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> He also won in 2021.<ref name=":0" />
== Personal life == Agee lives in San Francisco with his wife, Audrey.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=About |url=https://www.jonagee.com/html/bio.php?nav=2&sub=0 |access-date=2024-01-26 |website=www.jonagee.com}}</ref> He enjoys crossword puzzles. In 2003, ''New York Times'' puzzle editor Will Shortz wrote that Agee had thanked him for including his name in a Friday crossword and joked that "he would not be satisfied until his name appeared in a Monday puzzle, the easiest of the week, where every answer is supposed to be familiar to most solvers. Only then would he know that he had truly arrived."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Shortz |first=Will |date=March 3, 2003 |title=Crossword Memo: What's in a Name? Five Letters or Less |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/09/nyregion/crossword-memo-what-s-in-a-name-five-letters-or-less.html |access-date=January 26, 2024 |work=The New York Times}}</ref>
== List of works == ===Picture books=== {{div col|colwidth=18em}} *''If Snow Falls'' (1982)<ref name="AgeePB"/> *''Ellsworth'' (1983)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeePB"/> *''Ludlow Laughs'' (1985)<ref name="PWBooksBy">{{cite web |title=Books by Jon Agee and Complete Book Reviews |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/authorpage/jon-agee.html |website=PublishersWeekly.com |access-date=1 March 2024 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="AgeePB"/> *''The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau'' (1988)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeePB"/> *''The Return of Freddy LeGrand'' (1992)<ref name="AgeePB"/> *''Flapstick'' (1993)<ref name="AgeePB">{{cite web |title=Picture Books |url=https://www.jonagee.com/html/p_books.php |website=JonAgee.com |access-date=1 March 2024}}</ref> *''Dmitri the Astronaut'' (1996)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeePB"/> *''The Return of Freddy Legrand'' (1999)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeePB"/> *''Milo's Hat Trick'' (2001)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeePB"/> *''When Z Goes Home'' (2003)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeePB"/> *''Terrific'' (2005)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeePB"/> *''Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?'' (2006)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeePB"/> *''Nothing'' (2007)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeePB"/> *''The Retired Kid'' (2008)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeePB"/> *''My Rhinoceros'' (2011)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeePB"/> *''The Other Side of Town'' (2012)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeePB"/> *''Little Santa'' (2013)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeePB"/> *''It's Only Stanley'' (2015)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeePB"/> *''Lion Lessons'' (2016)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeePB"/> *''Life on Mars'' (2017)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeePB"/> *''The Wall in the Middle of the Book'' (2018)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeePB"/> *''I Want a Dog'' (2019)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeePB"/> *''My Dad Is a Tree'' (2023)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeePB"/> {{Div col end}}
===Collections of word play=== {{div col|colwidth=18em}} *''Go Hang a Salami! I'm a Lasagna Hog!: And Other Palindromes'' (1991)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeeWP">{{cite web |title=Word Play Books |url=https://www.jonagee.com/html/wp_books.php |website=JonAgee.com |access-date=1 March 2024}}</ref> *''So Many Dynamos!: And Other Palindromes'' (1994)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeeWP"/> *''Who Ordered the Jumbo Shrimp?: And Other Oxymorons'' (1998)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeeWP"/> *''Sit on a Potato Pan, Otis!: More Palindromes'' (1999)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeeWP"/> *''Elvis Lives!: And Other Anagrams'' (2000)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeeWP"/> *''Palindromania!'' (2002)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeeWP"/> *''Smart Feller Fart Smeller: And Other Spoonerisms'' (2006)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeeWP"/> *''Orangutan Tongs: Poems to Tangle Your Tongue'' (2009)<ref name="AgeeWP"/> *''Mr. Putney's Quacking Dog'' (2010)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeeWP"/> *''Otto: A Palindrama'' (2021)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeeWP"/> {{Div col end}}
===As illustrator=== *Natalie Babbitt and others, ''The Big Book for Peace'' (1990)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Durell |first1=Ann |last2=Sachs |first2=Marilyn |title=The Big Book for Peace |date=1990 |publisher=Dutton children's books |location=New York |isbn=0525446052}}</ref> *Dee Lillegard, ''Sitting in My Box'' (1989)<ref name="PWBooksBy"/><ref name="AgeePB"/> *Tor Seidler, ''Mean Margaret'' (1997)<ref name="AgeePB"/> *Erica Silverman, ''The Halloween House'' (1998)<ref name="AgeePB"/> *William Steig, ''Potch & Polly'' (2002)<ref name="AgeePB"/>
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Agee, Jon}} Category:American children's book illustrators Category:American children's writers Category:Writers who illustrated their own writing Category:20th-century American illustrators Category:21st-century American illustrators Category:American magazine cartoonists Category:The New Yorker cartoonists Category:American humorists Category:Anagrammatists Category:Palindromists Category:Writers from San Francisco Category:Cooper Union alumni Category:21st-century American male writers Category:20th-century American male writers Category:1960 births Category:Living people Category:People from Nyack, New York