Looking for a Laugh?

Last week our indefatigable library volunteer Zan sat down with some 5-6 year olds on the sofa and read The Dumb Bunnies aloud. From across the room, where I was helping another child find dinosaur books, I could hear Zan and the kids howling with laughter, revisiting the page and pointing to the silly illustrations. Zan later told me she has shelved the Dumb Bunnies books for over 10 years but never sat down and read them. Sharing belly laughs with the kids absolutely made her day.

(In case you don't know this hugely popular series, the early editions are by "Sue Denim." When some children asked if we could write to Sue and ask her to write more, I discovered the true author is Dav Pilkey, of Captain Underpants fame, who wrote that he always wanted to write under a pseudonym--say it out loud. I especially like the fine print on the back of the title page, where it notes, "The illustrations in this book were done with watercolors, India ink, acrylics, and Hamburger Helper.")

Most of us enjoy being around funny people. How did they get to be that way? Is a sense of humor just inborn? Or is it something we can inculcate? I think we can do more than inculcate -- I want to indoctrinate. I see humor develop in children throughout their elementary years. The ones who painstakingly work their way through the Garfield comics, the Calvin and Hobbes compilations and the Captain Underpants series develop a sense of the inane, the quirky, and the funny that makes them highly sought after by their peers. I remember my own 8 year old, a Calvin and Hobbes fanatic, asking me, "Mom, what's a lobotomy?" I gave him a short explanation and he chuckled, "Oh, now I get it!" Some obscure cartoon panel suddenly made sense. At school we now have a 6 year old who is learning to read with Garfield -- no controlled vocabulary short vowel books for him! Watching him struggle with surprisingly advanced vocabulary, he has to re-read many of the cartoons over and over. Finally, he gets the joke. He is intensely motivated to work hard, and his reward is the laugh.

The children's writer Gordon Korman once asked, "What do we value most when we are at a dinner party? A sense of humor? Or an ability to recognize foreshadowing? And which do we spend time teaching?" I am guilty of emphasizing foreshadowing. But I do make knock-knock joke bookmarks. I laugh at the punchlines of ancient riddles and bad puns every single day. Kids delight in making an adult laugh. The least I can do is oblige. One mother told me about a family holiday dinner where funny stories were flying fast. Her 7 year old whispered urgently to her, "Tell me something that I can say to make them laugh."

Children's humor can be raunchy, obscure or just plain dumb. Parents have occasionally complained to me about subversive and offensive children's books. I try to explain that a child's intense quest for a laugh might just turn her into a reader. As a parent, you don't have to laugh at scatalogical jokes, but your emerging reader finds them just scandalous enough to test boundaries and an enticement to read further. And I promise, he won't include poop jokes in his college essay.

Here are some favorites with the 5-7 year old set:

Doreen Cronin, Diary of A Worm and sequels, Click Clack Moo
Helen Lester, Tacky the Penguin and sequels
Margie Palatini, Piggie Pie, Bedhead
Dav Pilkey, Captain Underpants series, Dumb Bunnies series, Kat Kong
Jon Scieszka, The Stinky Cheese Man, many others
Lane Smith, The Happy Hocky Family
Melanie Watt, Scaredy Squirrel and sequels
Mo Willems, Knuffle Bunny, Elephant and Piggie series

And for the more discriminating 8-10 year olds:

Roddy Doyle, The Giggler Treatment
Patricia Finney, I Jack by Jack the Dog
Andy Griffiths, The Day My Butt Went Psycho and sequels
Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid series
Gordon Korman, Nose Pickers from Outer Space, many others
Daniel Pinkwater, The Werewolf Club series
Ian Whybrow, Little Wolf's Book of Badness

Please add some of your own favorite funny titles by clicking the comments button!