They had this picture book at my preschool in the mid-’80s, though it may have been published earlier. It was about a boy who got into all sorts of trouble “for nothing,” as he described it. Escapades included putting water in the gas tank of the car and chopping down the family Christmas tree (“Sometimes they even spank me for nothing!”). The story ended with something like, “Oh well…in the end I guess it’s all ok.” The illustrations were large, simple, and goofy, almost like kids’ drawings; I remember the characters had big mitt-like hands and line-drawn smiles and frowns.
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
Could it he the Oh, David! Series by David Shannon?
The Oh David! books look like they have a similar theme, but they’re too late for the one I remember (published at the latest in the ’80s). Mine wasn’t a kid-friendly book in retrospect–over-the-top like the Tom and Jerry cartoons–but in preschool I wasn’t the most discerning consumer of literature. The art was more like Mercer Mayer, if I recall correctly.