The Retired Kid by Jon Agee

Add another title to my possible PICKS FROM THE PIT! Jon Agee is known for his off beat, quirky picture books, and his new one, The Retired Kid will make a kid pleasing read aloud.


Brian decides being a kid is too hard, what with the school work and soccer practice and vegetable eating and music lessons and dog walking and baby sister sitting. He's exhausted! So he announces his retirement, and after his parents throw him a retirement party, he moves to The Happy Sunset Retirement Community in, where else, Florida.

Once there he has a new set of friends named Ethel, Wally, Myrtle, Phyllis and Tex who goes on about his hip replacement, complete with x-rays. His best friend Harvey takes him fishing, to baseball games or the movies, and starts Brian thinking about whether retirement is all it's cracked up to be. After remembering "the good times" like the school musical, the math test he aced, and scoring a soccer goal, Brian decides to come out of retirement and return to the job he loves, being a kid.

As usual, Jon Agee provides plenty of humor and colorful pictures that kids will love. I think the idea of retiring to Florida will also appeal to the kids, I know it sounds pretty good to me, but sitting on Ethel's teeth may be enough to make them change their minds. At the very least, it will make them laugh, and in THE PIT..that's a very good thing!