Don’t bring your blue chimpanzee to school, even if his name is Dodger, and even if he isn’t entirely real. Dodger is Willie’s best friend. Dodger tags along with Willie wherever he goes. The two of them share trouble, adventures, and baseball. If you don’t believe me, read DODGER AND ME by Jordan Sonnenblick (a Square Fish publication). Hawaii’s book club kids voted this book the funniest and best. Especially if you enjoy crazy-silly with a blue chimpanzee!
CLEVER JACK TAKES THE CAKE is all about silly adventures and delicious scrumptious cake, topped with sweet succulent strawberries – and a surprise. Candace Fleming has combined ingredients from several classic tales – flocks of blackbirds, trolls under bridges, princesses and castles – to create an unusual tall tale, illustrated by G. Brian Karas.
Twelve year-old Maya Davidson is spending the year in Paris for her scientist father’s work, along with her ill mother and her annoyingly charming, five year-old brother James. They’ve been invited by the strange Society of Philosophical Chemistry. Turns out the society is run by distant cousins who’ve been… waiting for Maya. Nesbet’s sure storytelling spins us along cobblestoned Paris streets, in and out of old buildings and through crowds of elegant Parisians where something is… off. Maya and her droll Bulgarian friend Valko discover the secret and magic Cabinet of Earths and must unravel the mystery of making time stand still, before time runs out. A compelling and atmospheric page-turner, A CABINET OF EARTHS is a fantastic trans-Atlantic journey. Earnest and clever Maya is the ideal companion with whom to take it.
Warning: these book suggestions contain underwear, talking origami, space cats, and other weird things that kids find funny. If the idea of a crocodile wearing red underpants like a mask is offensive to you, I suggest you look away. If the idea makes you giggle, read on!
One of the fastest ways to a kid’s reading heart is through the funny bone. Here are some of my favorite humorous books to hook even reluctant readers:
For the youngest readers:
No! That’s Wrong by Zhaohua Ji and Cui Xu (Kane/Miller, 2008) For so many kids, there’s nothing funnier than underwear, especially when it’s on someone’s head! A rabbit finds a pair of underpants, and he immediately puts them on. “It’s a hat!” “No, that’s wrong. It’s not a hat,” says the unseen narrator. To prove it’s a hat, the rabbit tries the underwear on the head of an elephant (“I think it’s too small”) and a chipmunk (who declares “what a fabulous hat!” even though it’s covering his entire face). No matter how many times the narrator tries to explain that the underwear is not a hat, all the animals insist on putting it on their heads. Finally a donkey shows a book of people wearing underpants in the “traditional” way, but when rabbit squeezes his cottony tail into the underpants, all the animals laugh at him for wearing a hat on his tush. Rabbit decides to keep enjoying his wonderful hat, and the endpapers show the animals all decked out in clothes worn in unusual ways. So wrong, it’s right!
Guess Again! writtenby Mac Barnett and illustrated byAdam Rex (Simon & Schuster, 2009)With shadow figures and rhyming riddles, Barnett and Rex set kids up and then delight them with unexpected ridiculousness.
“Who’s furry, scurries, and has fleas?
Who climbs our counters and eats our cheese?
We’ve set up traps all through the house
But still can’t catch that pesky” (turn the page as the kids are all calling out “mouse!”)
“Viking!”
Every page turn gives a nonsensical answer to a rhyme and reveals how a figure on the previous page is not what we thought it was. Readers will enjoy Guess Again! again and again and again!
For the transitional readers:
Binky the Space Cat by Ashley Spires (Kids Can Press, 2009)This graphic novel is the first in an addictive series about Binky. “Unlike your average cat, HE has a purpose. His mission is to one day blast off into outer space… to explore unknown places… and to battle alien creatures.” It’s a brave plan for a cat that has never been outside. To Binky, his house is a space station, and all that is outside his house is “outer space”. This works for the learning-to-read kids as well as independent readers.
Down Girl and Sit: Smarter than Squirrels written by Lucy Nolan and illustrated by Mike Reed (Marshall Cavendish, 2004) Down Girl and Sit are two very smart best friend dogs, smarter even than squirrels. “You never see a dog in a tree, do you? That’s because dogs are smart. We know it would hurt to fall out.” Every morning, Down Girl wakes her master, Rruff an hour before his alarm clock goes off and scares him, that’s how smart and thoughtful she is. But when Here Kitty Kitty moves onto their street, Down Girl and Sit must use all their dog smarts to protect their masters’ backyards from intruders. Short chapters punctuated with illustrations make this good for new-to-chapter-book readers.
For the older readers:
Strange Case of the Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger (Amulet, 2010) With its many doodles, first-person voice, and middle school setting, this will often be compared to Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but I liked it way better. Tommy and his friends are trying to figure out if the origami Yoda that Dwight wears on his finger is really dispensing wisdom, or if it’s just Dwight being quirky . I liked the characters as they took turns telling their version of events, and I love how Yoda gives realistic kid advice (when Kellen gets water in an awkward place on his pants at school, Yoda tells him “Wet all you must” because sitting in class with soaking wet pants is, to many kids, preferable to looking like you have bladder control issues). There are instructions at the end for making your own origami Yoda, and the sequel is already out: Darth Paper Strikes Back. For fifth graders, this is a funny, fast read.
ReaderKidZ is proud to have two nationally-known children’s librarians, (also both authors and speakers), Jeanette Larson and Kristen Remenar, who can answer your questions and help you find the right children’s book. And they won’t ask you to keep your voice down.
We all know reading is a lifelong skill that brings children knowledge and pleasure. And that reading is crucial for kids in today’s information-based society. Did you know that reading improves logical thinking and communication skills? That it builds imagination, vocabulary, language skills, self-esteem, and discipline, and that it allows us access into other cultures, minds and hearts?
It probably leads to longer life and thicker hair, too, (but we lack evidence of that).
Want a great book recommendation for an eight year-old who loves mysteries? All nine year-olds who like Harry Potter? A seven year-old who likes THE MAGIC TREE HOUSE?
As we’ve already done, every month we’ll add a new list of outstanding books for K-5 kids, by subject, reading level, and maturity, if appropriate. Check back often for the Librarians’ Picks.
When we recommend a book, we’ll separate them by reading difficulty level, and note “maturity level” as necessary.
Reading Levels:
Youngest readers – easier to read for those just learning
Transitioning readers – young readers ready for longer, more complicated sentences, paragraphs and stories.
Older readers – Full length novels! Whoo-hooo!
Maturity codes:
G – for everybody
PG – a little parental guidance may be necessary,
M – for older readers, i.e. some fourth and fifth graders who are ready for more mature themes. No, not that mature.
FAQs
Every month we’ll feature a new question. Here’s the first:
HOW CAN I ENCOURAGE CHILDREN TO READ?
-Read to them. You can’t do it too soon. And don’t stop once he or she starts reading on their own.
-Listen to audiobooks (in the car!)
-Model it: Read a book yourself.
-Provide magazines, graphic novels, comic books, wordless picture books. Reading is reading. A kid with her nose in something she likes will likely try another.
-Try storybook apps for readers, tablets and computers.
-Find the right books (interest, reading level, maturity level): Check our lists, and
VISIT YOUR LIBRARY. Children’s Librarians are experts in helping a child find the right book for them. And the right book is…
Eleven year old Melody Brooks was born with Cerebral Palsy. Confined to a wheelchair and unable to walk, talk or feed herself, Melody longs to communicate and be just like a “normal” kid. Thousands – maybe millions – of words swirl inside her head. Trapped. With her fierce determination and encouraged by her family, Melody discovers something that allows her voice to be heard and shows the naysayers – teachers, classmates even doctors – how smart she truly is. And that sometimes being “normal” isn’t better, especially when it looks and sounds ugly. For every reader who has ever been misunderstood, this one’s for you. A great read aloud for parent and child!
Award-winning Author Sharon M. Draper offers additional discussion on Out of My Mind (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2010) at her website with thought-provoking questions and activities for readers. Be sure to check it out at www.sharondraper.com
I was so pleased that Jack Gantos’s DEAD END IN NORVELT won the Newbery medal this year. Because it’s funny! Humor doesn’t always get the respect and prizes it deserves. Newberys have gone to humorous books only a couple of times in the last fifty years, mainly since 1999*. We tend to assume that if something’s funny, it’s not serious, and therefore not to be taken… as seriously.
Au contraire. Funny is dead serious. It’s based on the truth of pain, suffering and chaos.
And kids love it!
Humor rules. If you can get a kid to laugh out loud at a book, they’re hooked. Probably for life.
Humor is subjective. (Disclaimer: breaking humor apart to see how it ticks may irrevocably bust it.) Funny for third-grade boys is really an animal unto itself—a strange, gross creature like a baboon crossed with a squid. But you can learn to love it. With three boys, there’s been so much potty humor in our house for so long, I can laugh over flying toilets and Uranus with the best ‘em.
Humor is also subversive and children respond to this.
It turns things on their head, in small and large ways—from the simplest Sandra Boynton puns (we still wish family members “Hippo Birdy Two Ewes”) and Amelia Bedelia’s literalness and resulting snafus, to super diaper babies and violent Lunch Ladies. Humor takes all the dos and don’ts kids are trying to get a handle on, from linguistic rules to hygiene and elimination protocol, and smashes them. It upends and overthrows the bossy authorities and institutions that run kids’ lives. CLICK CLACK MOO: COWS THAT TYPE by Doreen Cronin & Betsy Lewin? Those uppity cows are subversive defined. Barbara Park’s JUNIE B. JONES exasperates most of the adults around her. NO, DAVID! by David Shannon is a boy breaking rules, straight up. Kids are generally powerless and anything that switches this uneven, unjust balance, even for a moment, is gratifying and reassuring.
If adults are uncomfortable with it, so much the better! I know adults who are upset by just how funny CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS is. But one young reader raved on Amazon about Dav Pilkey’s latest : “Do not listen to the bad reviews. This book is really good. I read it twice in one day. I want Dav to be way grosser and funnier in his next book. My favorite part was when the robot cat ate all the toilets in town.”
I think all Pilkey’s reviews, good and bad, have the word toilet in them.
Humor is pain plus time. ReaderKidZ librarian Kristen Remenar reported reading the opening line from THE TEACHER’S FUNERAL by Richard Peck to a crowd of fifth graders (“If your teacher has to die, August isn’t a bad time of year for it.”) She said, “There was a collective intake of breath, a glancing around to make sure the teachers were smiling, and then the waves of laughter.” Of course they looked around! The kids were making sure they wouldn’t get multiple detentions before they cracked up. Come on, that’s a dark line. Dying is about as painful as you can get.
Absurdity and things spinning out of control are also a big part of the darkness underlying children’s (in this case, especially boys’) sense of humor. Mo Willems, Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith understand this well. NAKED MOLE RAT GETS DRESSED? Absurd! THE STINKY CHEESE MAN AND OTHER FAIRLY STUPID TALES? Totally outta control! The little red hen leaves her story. All of fiction falls apart therein.
The truth is, kids know on some deep level just how close the world IS to total chaos. Laughing at it lessens the terrible burden of that.
*Anyone who has read those early winners, correct me if I’m wrong. I think winning books where humor is predominant are HOLES by Louis Sachar in 1999 and A YEAR DOWN YONDER by Richard Peck in 2001. The other book in the last thirty years one could argue was more funny than solemn is THE WHIPPING BOY, by Sid Fleishman. Before Sid, kidlit took itself pretty seriously.
Chronicle Books has created some super supplemental material to support the cleverly hilarious picture book, E-mergency! – some great lessons and activities designed to keep a child engaged in the story for a very long time. And, as studies show, the longer a child is engaged in stories, letter recognition and comprehension skills are developed. E-mergency! just might be the book that inspires a child to become a full-fledged reader. Now, wouldn’t that be grand?
The Teacher Guide created to compliment E-mergency! is packed with fun activities such as Baffling Bingo, Grabbing Acronyms, and Punny Language – all focused around the compelling question, “What happens when the most important letter of the alphabet gets a big owie?” Zany letter recognition fun is continued when kids act out the Readers’ Theatre script where Letter Y asks, “So no one can use E, including us?” To which Letter A answers, “That’s right. Starting right now, it’s O instead of E. That’s it PORIOD.” And, to Tool Box top things off, become hooked by watching the endearing YouTube video where the entire alphabet – heck, the whole world – laments Letter’s E’s injured status.
To quote the Readers’ Theatre narrator, “The alphabet then alerted the media that E was “injured” and could not work. What will happen to the newspapers, signs, and even the lunch menus without E?” You’ll have to read E-mergency! to find out for yourself.
Mission Statement
To provide teachers, librarians, and parents with the resources and inspiration to foster a love of reading in kids, K-5.
