Children’s books always have two audiences: adults and kids. They often have more demands on them than adult fiction. A popular novel can be fun and little more. Books for kids often, even usually, need some lesson as well.
Joan in the Cone is a pleasant 2025 picture book by Billy Sharff that balances all of these things. As the title suggests, it uses simple rhyme. As the title signals to those who have dogs, the lead character is a dog, Joan, who is living her fun best life until–entirely through her own mistake–she injures herself and has to spend some time in a cone.
She mopes in a very self-absorbed fashion, but eventually stumbles across an old toy, stolen long ago from a human sibling. She returns it, and this starts Joan’s redemption tour, during which she returns all kinds of stolen objects.
As a dog lover, I found this highly relatable, and Hala Tahboub’s illustrations are skillful. There’s good use of color–Joan’s days of great despair are essentially all black–and cartoonish images that communicate what’s going on and how everyone’s feeling well.
