Watch the segment here!

“I’m always looking to get a laugh from everyone,” B.J. Novak says. The Newton native grew up in a family that valued humor, honed his skills at the Lampoon and Hasty Pudding Club at Harvard, then spent nearly a decade writing, producing, and acting in television’s “The Office.”

Once the show ended, he turned his attention to writing, publishing “One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories” earlier this year. That book was for grownups, but his latest project explores new comic territory.

“I love to get a laugh from a kid,” Novak said in a telephone interview. “That is one of the great pleasures in life.” He isn’t a father yet himself, but he’s hit the age when friends are having kids. “I would always ask when I was visiting a house with a little kid: ‘What’s your favorite book? Can I read a book to you?’ I would always hope for a funny book.” Read the full interview here.

On October 2, the Harvard Book Store hosted B. J. Novak (from TV’s The Office, Saving Mr. Banks, and many others; also a Harvard University grad, thank you very much) reading his new picture book — The Book with No Pictures — at the Brattle Theatre. He invited kids on to the stage for a rollicking reading of his hilarious book. At least I thought that was rollicking, until I saw him read again the next day in front of about two hundred first-through-third-graders at a nearby elementary school. Pure kid bliss, complete with Q&A at the end (Kid: “Did you write books when you were little?” BJN: “Yes! Spooky books for Halloween, stories about the beach when it was summertime…”) and an invitation to send him story ideas (um… Uncle Shelby, anyone?! If you don’t get that reference, read on). We spoke afterward about standup comedy, childhood rebellion, and metafiction. Read the full interview here. 

B.J. Novak sees his children’s book as a “gateway drug to literature.” The book, quite literally, is what it says it’s going to be: The Book With No Pictures, and, no, it does not cheat on that promise. And while there are no pictures in Novak’s book, there is colorful text, text that the adult (or bigger kid) reading the book has to say—no matter how silly they’ll sound reading it. And they’ll probably sound really silly. (Sample: “I am a monkey who taught myself to read.”) Read full article here.

The comedian joins TODAY to talk about his new children’s book, “The Book With No Pictures,” and some invented words in the book, including ”Ba-dooongy face,” which he says you “blurt out in a moment of distress.”

Watch the full segment here.