NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Comedian and actor Pete Holmes conjures up a tale where kids run the show in this hilarious interactive picture book. With a wisecracking dragon heckling from the sidelines, young readers will cast delightfully ridiculous spells that turn grown-ups into giggling, snoring, clucking bundles of chaos.
“Pete has created something really amazing here—a book you can read to your kids and you’re BOTH laughing. I loved it.”
—Judd Apatow
“This is THE greatest idea for a children's book. It’s a lot of power wielding for someone who still needs help reaching the cereal, but since I’m scheduled to moo at 4PM, it clearly works.”
—Tig Notaro
Snakes that slither, frogs that leap,Make my grown-up FALL ASLEEP!SIP-SAP-SOAP-SHHHHH!Featuring a snarky dragon named Jesse—and YOU as the narrator—Pete Holmes’s debut children’s book celebrates silliness, imagination, and the magic of reading together. Each page invites young readers to cast a spell on their grown-up—causing them to fall asleep mid-sentence, talk in slow motion, make animal noises, or speak total gibberish.
Spells to Cast on Your Parents isn’t just a picture book—it’s a full-blown performance, an instant family event, and a fun twist on the traditional bedtime story. And beneath all the mayhem, it’s a story that celebrates the power and wonder of being a kid. With mounting mischief, interactive call-and-response, and pitch-perfect comedic timing, this is a book children will demand again and again.
On sale: September 1, 2026
Age: 3-7 years
Grade: Preschool - 2
Page count: 40 Pages
ISBN: 9798217119035
Reading level: Fountas/Pinnell: L
PETE HOLMES is the
New York Times bestselling author of
Spells to Cast on Your Parents. He is the creator and star of HBO’s
Crashing (produced by Judd Apatow) and TBS’s
The Pete Holmes Show (produced by Conan O’Brien). Pete has multiple stand-up specials on HBO, Netflix, and Comedy Central and can most recently be seen in Anna Kendrick’s film
Woman of the Hour as well as 2024’s
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and Disney’s
Home Sweet Home Alone. He starred in CBS’s
How We Roll, was the voice of the E*Trade baby, and was a guest writer and star on multiple episodes of
The Simpsons. Pete’s also proud to be the dumbest Batman on YouTube (Badman), the host of the wildly popular
You Made It Weird podcast, and a celebrity guest on the ABC game show
Match Game. He wrote this bio in third person. He napped shortly thereafter.
"If Holmes’ ambition is to
make readers laugh at how ridiculous they sound following the book’s prompts, then
he will succeed valiantly. . . .
Scales new heights of picture-book meta." —
Kirkus
"[A] comical, magical interactive picture book aimed at little wizards....
A fun detour for young fantasists, built for one-on-one read-alouds." —
Booklist
