There wasn’t a whole lot to laugh at in 2020, that’s for sure. Yet a great big list of wonderfully funny picture books came out, and here are some of the best. A bit of much needed levity for the year.
Review of the Day: See the Cat by David LaRochelle, ill. Mike Wohnoutka
July 16, 2020 by
You can hand today’s book to a kid learning to read, absolutely. Just be warned that their read may be punctuated with interjections of a highly voluble nature. In other words, this is laugh-out-loud funny.
Review of the Day: Nerp! by Sarah Lynne Reul
May 21, 2020 by
You know those parents that get roped into reading to their kids’ preschool/Kindergarten/church group and walk aimlessly through libraries and bookstores in a hazy daze of barely contained fear? This book is for them. Guaranteed laughs, short content, and the kind of book I could see a kid demanding over and over again. Worth buying? “Yerp!”
Review of the Day: Snail Crossing by Corey R. Tabor
March 4, 2020 by
I’ve read snail picture books before, but few have plumbed their humor quite as well as Tabor has in “Snail Crossing”. Less a story of persistence than a lesson in karma, this may well be the first snail-adjacent picture book that has ever made me AND my kids laugh out loud for long periods of time. I can think of not better praise than that.
31 Days, 31 Lists: 2019 Funny Picture Books
December 6, 2019 by
Judging a picture book based on humor alone really comes down to the sense of humor of the reader. On that note, let me state clearly that the books you’ll see here were just the ones that highly amused ME this year.
Review of the Day: Mr. Nogginbody Gets a Hammer by David Shannon
September 6, 2019 by
I don’t know what it took to make Mr. Nogginbody come into the world, but whatever confluence of the planets allowed this madcap exercise in increasing hijinks to happen, I say let’s have more of it! In a sea of picture books that remain unmemorable five minutes after you’ve read them, Mr. Nogginbody hits the nail on the head. Hard.
Review of the Day: Pokko and the Drum by Matthew Forsythe
August 9, 2019 by
There’s something going on in this book. A wry, whipsmart, funny tale that actually may have a thing or two to say about female empowerment. Or not? It’s easy to read too much into this book, but I’d say it’s also just as easy to read into it everything that you need it to be. Intelligent writing for kids that will not just appeal but engage and entice.
Review of the Day: Crab Cake by Andrea Tsurumi
April 24, 2019 by
A book that effectively establishes normality, disrupts it with horror, and then assures the reader that normality can return. If Tsurumi’s previous picture book, Accident, was about taking responsibility for your mistakes, Crab Cake is about taking care of yourself when the mistake is not your own.
Review of the Day: The Happy Book by Andy Rash
March 13, 2019 by
You have other books about emotions that you love, I have no doubt, but seriously consider supplementing them with Rash’s latest. A loving little book unafraid to be happy, sad, angry, scared, and supremely good.
31 Days, 31 Lists: 2018 Funny Picture Books
December 7, 2018 by
This might be my favorite picture book list of the 31 Days, 31 Books countdown. How could it not be? Get ready for titles that’ll have the small fry howling in the aisles.
Book Trailer Reveal: Meet the Latkes by Alan Silberberg
November 20, 2018 by
Every year in December I do this 31 Days, 31 Books series. On each day I present a different list full of the best of the year. Board Books one day. Funny picture books another. And somewhere in there I put out a list I like to call Transcendent Holiday Books. These are the books […]
Review of the Day: A Storytelling of Ravens by Kyle Lukoff and Natalie Nelson
November 16, 2018 by
A Storytelling of Ravens By Kyle Lukoff Illustrated by Natalie Nelson Groundwood Books / House of Anansi Press $18.95 ISBN: 978-1-55498-912-6 Ages 4-7 On shelves now Humans love groups. We love separating ourselves into them, or putting other people into them (even when they don’t particularly want to be grouped). As small children, it’s one […]
Review of the Day: The Funeral by Matt James
October 3, 2018 by
The Funeral By Matt James Groundwood Books (an imprint of House of Anansi Press) ISBN: 978-1-55498-908-9 $18.95 Ages 4-7 On shelves now They say you don’t truly fear death until you have children. I’ll tweak that slightly. I say, you don’t truly fear talking about death until you have children. At least if you’re an […]
Review of the Day: We Don’t Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins
July 27, 2018 by
We Don’t Eat Our Classmates By Ryan T. Higgins Hyperion (an imprint of Disney Book Group) $17.99 ISBN: 978-136800355-1 Ages 4-7 On shelves now Each year, as the new school year draws ever closer, a bounty of first day of school books are published. The bulk of them are overly familiar. A couple of them […]
Review of the Day: I Hate Everyone by Naomi Danis
June 25, 2018 by
I Hate Everyone By Naomi Danis Illustrated by Cinta Arribas POW! (a division of powerhouse) $17.99 ISBN: 978-1-576870874-3 Ages 4-7 On shelves now Childhood is riddled with contradictions. Wait. No. Scrap that thought. Let’s rewrite it slightly. Childhood’s fine it’s the CHILDREN that are riddled with contradictions. In the same breath a child can scream […]
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