Questions Without Answers (Penguin Random House, April 29, 2025)
About the book
Pondering the questions only kids would think to ask, this hilarious, poignant collection captures the wonder of a child’s imagination, brought to life by beloved New Yorker cartoonist Liana Finck.
Does the rain know that people love to play in the rain? Are the bubbles in drinks their thoughts? Do dogs have chins? What does it feel like on the last day you’re a child?
What’s the best question a kid ever asked you? When Sarah Manguso opened a Twitter account and posted this single (and only) tweet, she immediately received hundreds of answers. Many, she discovered, were intelligent, intuitive, inventive, and philosophical. In the process of assembling them, the questions seemed to form a “choral philosophy” that she believes disappears from most people’s lives in kindergarten. As Manguso says in her illuminating foreword, “These questions are cute by the word’s original definition, swift and piercing. They cut to the quick.”
Praise
“This book is for anyone who has secret questions in their mind they are too embarrassed to ask out loud. In other words, this book is for everyone.”—Lemony Snicket, bestselling author of A Series of Unfortunate Events
“I loved this book. Each page is a love letter scribbled to my present self, from some space that still exists within me from childhood. It made me whole and left me heartbroken, all at once.” —Joana Avillez, author of D C-T!
“A miracle… the most profoundly silly and wise book I’ve read in years, and should be required reading for every philosophy graduate student or anyone considering having kids.” —Bess Kalb, author of Nobody Will Tell You This But Me
“If you’ve ever spent any time around young children, you’ll know that they take nothing for granted and that the world and everything in it is all news to them. … A terrific book for anyone who has ever been around kids, or has been a kid themselves.” —Roz Chast, New Yorker cartoonist and author of I Must Be Dreaming
“Sweet, smart, and shockingly insightful, this collection of questions reminds you of what it’s like to be curious about everything, and it shows, conclusively, that kids are first-rate philosophers who can reshape the way we see the world.”—Scott Hershovitz, author of Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Adventures in Philosophy with Kids