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B.J. Novak is writing another book with no pictures

B.J. Novak at the LA Times Festival of Books in 2014.
(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
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Actor and comedian B.J. Novak, best known for his performance as the ambitious but luckless Ryan Howard on the television show “The Office,” is writing a follow-up to his bestselling children’s book, “The Book With No Pictures.”

Penguin Young Readers will release “The Alphabet Book With No Pictures” next September, the publisher announced Tuesday.

“I want to inspire more kids to see that words can be as funny, exciting, and powerful as anything in the world,” Novak said in a release. “And to corner the market on books without pictures before kids realize I’m not the only person who writes them.”

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“The Book With No Pictures” was a bestseller and drew raves from critics and children after its release in 2014.

The book made use of innovative colors and typefaces, as well as funny-sounding nonsense words that appealed to young readers.

“I am a robot monkey,” reads one passage from the book, “and my head is made of blueberry pizza.”

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“The Alphabet Book With No Pictures” will continue in the same vein, according to the news release, with “rambunctious and innovative text that grows sillier and more elaborate as the reader progresses through the alphabet.”

The book will be Novak’s second book for children and his third overall. He released “One More Thing,” a short story collection for adults, in 2014.

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Meanwhile, Novak is still very much in the acting game — he’s appearing as former McDonald’s President Harry J. Sonneborn in “The Founder,” a biopic of Ray Kroc coming in January.

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