Jon Agee

Agee was born in Nyack, New York in 1960. He attended Cooper Union School of Art and graduated with a BFA degree.

Agee's art style is known for its "trademark blocky ink-and-watercolor illustrations," according to The New York Times.{{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}}

In the 1990s, he wrote two musicals for children for the Tada! theater company, 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.{{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}}

He has written cartoons for The New Yorker.{{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}}

Agee has published several books of palindromes and word play such as anagrams and oxymorons.{{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}} He became interested in them after a friend started writing them. "I liked the way absurdity and logic were intertwined," Agee said. In its review of Agee's book of 60 illustrated oxymorons called Who Ordered the Jumbo Shrimp?{{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}} 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."

His books include the 1996 picture book Dmitri the Astronaut, Smart Feller Fart Smeller, and many more.

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!".{{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}} He also won in 2021.

Agee lives in San Francisco with his wife, Audrey.{{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}} 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."{{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}}

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• If Snow Falls (1982)
• Ellsworth (1983)
• Ludlow Laughs (1985){{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}}
• The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau (1988)
• The Return of Freddy LeGrand (1992)
• Flapstick (1993){{cite web |title=Picture Books |url=https://www.jonagee.com/html/p_books.php |website=JonAgee.com |access-date=1 March 2024}}
• Dmitri the Astronaut (1996)
• The Return of Freddy Legrand (1999)
• Milo's Hat Trick (2001)
• When Z Goes Home (2003)
• Terrific (2005)
• Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? (2006)
• Nothing (2007)
• The Retired Kid (2008)
• My Rhinoceros (2011)
• The Other Side of Town (2012)
• Little Santa (2013)
• It's Only Stanley (2015)
• Lion Lessons (2016)
• Life on Mars (2017)
• The Wall in the Middle of the Book (2018)
• I Want a Dog (2019)
• My Dad Is a Tree (2023)

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• Go Hang a Salami! I'm a Lasagna Hog!: And Other Palindromes (1991){{cite web |title=Word Play Books |url=https://www.jonagee.com/html/wp_books.php |website=JonAgee.com |access-date=1 March 2024}}
• So Many Dynamos!: And Other Palindromes (1994)
• Who Ordered the Jumbo Shrimp?: And Other Oxymorons (1998)
• Sit on a Potato Pan, Otis!: More Palindromes (1999)
• Elvis Lives!: And Other Anagrams (2000)
• Palindromania! (2002)
• Smart Feller Fart Smeller: And Other Spoonerisms (2006)
• Orangutan Tongs: Poems to Tangle Your Tongue (2009)
• Mr. Putney's Quacking Dog (2010)
• Otto: A Palindrama (2021)

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• Natalie Babbitt and others, The Big Book for Peace (1990){{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}}
• Dee Lillegard, Sitting in My Box (1989)
• Tor Seidler, Mean Margaret (1997)
• Erica Silverman, The Halloween House (1998)
• William Steig, Potch & Polly (2002)

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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