{"id":8569,"date":"2014-04-23T00:01:02","date_gmt":"2014-04-23T04:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=8569"},"modified":"2014-04-23T13:50:24","modified_gmt":"2014-04-23T17:50:24","slug":"lots-of-laughs-national-humor-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/lots-of-laughs-national-humor-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Lots of Laughs: National Humor Month"},"content":{"rendered":"

We all know that April is National Poetry Month, so I’m sure many of us have special poetry displays, booklists, and programs. But did you know that April is also National Humor Month?<\/p>\n

Books that tickle young readers’ and listeners’ funny bones are ideal for many reasons. Many parents (and fellow librarians) are often asked to be visiting readers at elementary schools.\u00a0 When parents tell me that they are scheduled to read aloud at their children’s school, I usually recommend picture books that are surefire humor hits. Funny books are also fantastic for reluctant readers and\/or readers who are new to chapter books. Everyone likes to laugh, even if they’re not so sure about reading.\u00a0 If you tell a young reader that the book is hilarious, it’s a great hook to get him\/her interested in the book.<\/p>\n

Of course, humor is very subjective! What’s amusing to one person is deadly dull to another. With that in mind, here are some of my favorite funny picture books:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Chicks<\/p>\n

(image taken from Scholastic<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Wouldn’t you get tired of eating chicken feed day in and day out? The chickens at Nuthatcher Farm long for something with a kick and a crunch….like chips and salsa! Pretty soon, their taste for southwestern treats spreads to guacamole and nachos, until Mr. and Mrs. Nuthatcher get a little too interested in the spicy snacks. Lots of snarky humor and asides to get the attention of a wide range of ages. The “follow up”, Buffalo Wings<\/span>, is just as hilarious. If you do football\/Super Bowl programming, you need to include these books!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"rumor\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(image taken from Jan Thornhill’s website<\/a>)<\/p>\n

With its similarity to Chicken Little, this Indian folktale of animals frantically spreading the word that the world is breaking up is a funny and dramatic tale perfect for folktale comparisons and multicultural bibliographies. A hare is convinced that the world is about to end when he hears a startling crash; he manages to alarm the other hares, the deer, the boars, and the tigers, who join him in alerting the lion….who is not at all amused.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"three_sillygirls\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(image taken from Scholastic website<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Another fun and funny book to use for folktale comparisons is this takeoff on The Three Billy Goats Gruff. The three Grubb sisters are skipping across the bridge on their way to school; underneath the bridge lies Ugly-Boy Bobby. Ugly-Boy Bobby is placated by the promise of enormous quantities of doughnuts from the biggest Grubb sister…but her demand sends him running off to school to be a model student for all his days. This is one of my top favorite read alouds for elementary school; witty and a delight to share.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"what_criedgranny\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(image taken from Scholastic website<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Kate Lum’s tall tale of a rather peculiar (yet extremely resourceful) granny is a rollicking read aloud. Patrick and Granny are pumped for his first-ever sleepover at her house…until he realizes that he has no bed. Or pillow. Or even a teddy bear. Never mind–Granny sews and hammers everything into place. But there’s a consequence to all this frantic activity! (I won’t spoil the ending–it’s too great.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I could go on and on (I didn’t even cover chapter books), but I want to know about your favorite funny stories for young readers. Picture books, easy readers, chapter books, joke books–let’s dish!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all know that April is National Poetry Month, so I’m sure many of us have special poetry displays, booklists, and programs. But did you know that April is also National Humor Month? Books that tickle young readers’ and listeners’ funny bones are ideal for many reasons. Many parents (and fellow librarians) are often asked to be visiting readers at elementary schools.\u00a0 When parents tell me that they are scheduled to read aloud at their children’s school, I usually recommend picture books that are surefire humor hits. Funny books are also fantastic for reluctant readers and\/or readers who are new to chapter books. Everyone likes to laugh, even if they’re not so sure about reading.\u00a0 If you tell a young reader that the book is hilarious, it’s a great hook to get him\/her interested in the book. Of course, humor is very subjective! What’s amusing to one person is deadly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[71,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogger-jennifer-schultz","category-childrens-literature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}