9 Books to Make you Giggle! And We All Need to Giggle

So this started when I was re-doing our school book rooms and I had to look at hundreds book covers and I saw a few that made me giggle.

I wish I had kept two of the books, but they were so inappropriate I threw them out. Darn it. Since then, I have been keeping a little private record of some funny books for kids.

This is just supposed to be a silly post to bring a smile.

**DISCLAIMER** I don’t mean to offend anyone, I respect authors and illustrators and the work they do!  It’s just supposed to bring a giggle.

1. Giggle with Wine Country

I love this book, but I’m not sure we could use it in the classroom.

I’m sure the color representations are fine but I’m not so sure you should be talking about wine country.

Would you get questions like, “Have you been to wine country?” or “Do you drink wine?” You might even get some information you don’t want.

“My mom drinks wine every night.”

But, if we’re turning lemons into lemonade maybe we could suggest future books in the series: “Best Beers of the Coast” or “Vodkas for Every Teacher.” Sorry. Inappropriate, I apologize.

2. giggle with Illustrations

This is in a great sight word set put out by Scholastic.

I’m not trying to offend the company or the illustrator, but when I was trying to teach this book to a student on the autism spectrum.

He refused to say, “The flower is big.” He would just laugh and say, “It’s not a flower, it’s a doughnut.”

No matter how much I pointed out the stem, petals, leaves, and the “f” in “flower,” he wasn’t buying it.

He would just shake his head.

9 Books to Make you Giggle! And We All Need to Giggle Cathy Collier

3. Giggle with a Headache?

My apologies to Joy Cowley and Terry Burton, but I’m not sure Dad has a headache.

The book talks about Dad’s headache.

How bad he feels and how much food doesn’t sound good to him.

I think it even talks about how hard it was to get out of bed.

In the picture Dad looks like he doesn’t think the food prepared for him would keep his stomach settled. I’m almost sure the alternate title might be “Dad’s Hangover.”

4. Flirting Gets You Anything You Want?

This book is all about an ice cream cone.

I know it was written in a “more innocent time” and it’s sad the context of this simple book can be mistaken, but I’m not sure about this one in 2018.

The boy is shielding his ice cream cone from several people who want to share in his snack.

The dog ends up eating the cone behind his back, but there are a few lessons to be learned. First, we really shouldn’t share food. We don’t know who has allergies or germs. Second, the little girl on page 6 seems to be flirting with him. I’m thinking he isn’t so sure about refusing her. Please forgive me, Gay Su, Jan, Colleen, and Adria.

5. Giggle with Illustrations Gone Really Wrong

I don’t remember the title and the company that produced this book, so I can’t directly apologize to them.

The book is about people in our families.

The last page even says, “The people who love you and take care of you are your family.”

Great topic. But look closely at the family tree. Look again.

I’m quite certain the grandmother and grandfather in the picture on the left shouldn’t be related to the grandmother and grandfather on the right.

I will not state where this might be acceptable, but I don’t want to be the one explaining the family tree to 5-year olds…or anyone else.

6. Horrible Harry and the WHAT? (GIGGLE)

I like the Horrible Harry series.

As a matter of fact, this was one of the series my boys liked and we would read a chapter a night before bed for one school year.

I liked the silliness of Horrible Harry and his friends and I think my boys liked to read about someone doing something they would never be able to do.

That being said, the illustrator may want to rethink the “mud gremlins” in the pictures.

I’ve heard many names for the things in the picture, but I’ve never heard them called “mud gremlins.”

9 Books to Make you Giggle! And We All Need to Giggle Cathy Collier

7. I Got Nothing

I think Jan Brett is one of the most amazing authors and illustrators of all time.

Her drawings are stunning. I remember when “The Owl and the Pussycat” was published and couldn’t wait to order it in my Scholastic Book Order to add to my classroom library.

The illustrations do not fail to amaze any reader. BUT, could you read that book out loud to a class? I’m sorry, but I couldn’t. I shouldn’t admit it. I shouldn’t say it, but no.

8. Oh No!

I love Maisy and Tallulah.

They are friends and just plain fun to be around, but this book goes a little far.

There are lessons we can all learn from this book though.

First lesson, don’t answer the door in a towel.

Maisy answers the door I would recommend letting the doorbell go unanswered while you are in tub.

Whoever it is will either come back later or go away. Second lesson, don’t spontaneously take off your clothes and jump in the tub with your friends. I know this is innocent, but life lessons, people. Life lessons.

9. Giggle About Bodily Functions (always)

I know we all know the book, Everybody Poops.

It gets giggles and snickers from students in the library, the book fair, or the book store.

Why wouldn’t it? It’s funny. This book fits in that category.

Daddy Sat on a Duck is about another bodily function: gas.

Yep. It’s all about noises that come from our bodies and how they sound like animals.

Personally, this is really funny because when we were growing up my dad’s best friend would say, “Oops, I stepped on a frog” whenever he had gas. It’s a terrible thing to admit, but it happened.

So I hope this post made you giggle. It is truly meant to be innocent fun with books.

January can be a difficult time with mid-year testing, snow days, make-up days, potential retention meetings, and other data conferences. I hope this lightened your day a little.

Cathy Collier

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