Brow Beat

The Road, The Corrections, and More, Imagined as Adorable Children’s Books

When Brow Beat saw Jerry Puryear’s amazing children’s-book style parodies of grown-up classics on Tumblr, we asked him if we could show them off here. Puryear’s mock-ups of The Goldfinch, The Road, Blood Meridian, and Wonder Boys are reprinted with permission from his Tumblr, Misguided Paeans.

We asked Puryear about his inspiration, and he wrote:

I’m a fan of good fiction with occasional forays into bad fiction. And because I’ve got three little kids, I’ve read more than my share of children’s books, too. These pieces are just as much an ode to Richard Scarry, Syd Hoff, and H. A. Rey as they are to Donna Tartt, Cormac McCarthy, Michael Chabon, and Jonathan Franzen. Much of the inspiration to make these pieces came from Sean Tejaratchi—thank you, Sean.

Cormac McCarthy’s The Road by Jerry Puryear

Cormac McCarthy’s The Road by Jerry Puryear

Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian by Jerry Puryear

Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian by Jerry Puryear

Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch by Jerry Puryear

Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch by Jerry Puryear

Michael Chabon’s Wonder Boys by Jerry Puryear

Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections by Jerry Puryear

Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections by Jerry Puryear