Or don’t beware. Be excited. Picture books with made-up words that make complete sense are my new favorite trend.

  There’s Best Frints in the Whole Universe by Antoinette “Kleebo” Portis (Roaring Brook, July 2016; received a starred review in the May/June 2016 Horn Book Magazine), about two residents of Boborp who have been best frints since they were little blobbies. There’s no Boborpian glossary here, leaving readers to figure things out for themselves — and then feel pretty good about it.

And there’s Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis (Candlewick, October 2016; receiving a September/October 2016 starred review), which takes nonsense a step further: there’s obviously tak-ing going on, and clearly there’s unk gladdenboot, but there’s not a word of English (or, as far as I know, any other language), so it’s up to readers to figure out what it all means from the scrivadelly pictures — and the punctuation.

And as Lewis Carroll might put it, that’s pretty frabjous.