The Museum of Nothing

Oona, portrayed with pink skin, and Otto, whose skin is brown, aren’t sure what to expect when they stand at the entrance to the Museum of Nothing. But the place does look appropriately empty—Guarnaccia (Knit Your Bit) delineates the space and its empty pedestals and vitrines with crisp black lines and basic gray washes. The kids, who each sport “0” motifs on their clothing, quickly take to the place, and it turns out that there’s an awful lot of nothing on display here, including a library full of books with empty pages, a wing that pays tribute to zero, bottles of air reminiscent of Marcel Duchamp’s work, and another room full of holes whose black hole seems to momentarily envelop Otto. The joke even continues in the gift shop, where one can buy an Invisible Man action figure and a covetable t-shirt that reads, “My parents went to the museum and all I got was nothing.” Cerebral and occasionally arcane, the cheeky pages will tickle young brains and inspire further exploration. Ages 5–9. (Oct.)