Laughter is the Best Medicine!

As you may (or may not) know the Children’s TD Summer Reading Club theme this summer is Laugh Out Loud (LOL) and I want to bring laughter to all of you. With a summer that’s been less than summery we certainly need all the giggles we can get.

Humourous books are written for all ages and all reasons so I’m grouping them into the broad categories of Kids, Teens, and Growed-ups. However, it’s worth sampling selections from all three areas rather than limiting yourself to just one area.

Kids

A lot of kids’ books rely on humour to keep us interested and the laughs come from both the text and illustrations. We even have joke and riddle books to tickle your funny bone! Some of them are gross-out funny and others are just a gentle giggle, but we’re sure to have something here for any taste.

There are some great picture books that give a laugh sometimes unexpectedly. One of my favourites is Rotten Island by William Steig (you may know him as the author of Shrek). You wouldn’t expect that a book entitled Rotten Island would be funny, but seeing the monsters terrified of a flower takes the reader by surprise.

Some much loved children’s books have words in them or in their titles that we aren’t necessarily comfortable with kids reading. I usually take this as an opportunity to talk about language and how context can make an acceptable word unacceptable and vice versa. Jon Scieszka (the first National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature in the United States) uses the word “stupid” in the title of his collection of stories The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. Here it’s his silly take on fairy tales. For a little Canadian content check out Good Families Don’t by Robert Munsch and learn why we shouldn’t ignore things we think are gross.

There are also some great chapter books including the Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey (the illustrations and laughs are a great bridge to “big kid” reading), I am not Joey Pigza by Jack Gantos, Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney, and Frindle by Andrew Clements.

Teens

Teen books sometimes use humour to address awkward issues and defuse tense situations. Many of the teen “chick lit” books feature moments that make the characters want to bury their heads in the sand, but we get a laugh out of it. The titles can bring on a smile too: Scrambled Eggs at Midnight and Sleeping Freshman Never Lie both got me giggling and no wonder, they’re meant to be funny books.

“Eddie’s father was killed by dragons. No, actually that’s a lie. He was killed when his submarine exploded. No, actually that’s a lie as well. The absolute truth is that he was killed by aliens and his death was covered up by the government because it didn’t want to frighten anyone. Sorry – but that’s not true either.” So begins Running with the Reservoir Pups by Colin Bateman. Right away you want to know what’s really going on with Eddie’s dad and you can be fairly certain it isn’t anything serious or he wouldn’t be telling such wild lies. A couple other books to check out are Alice I Think by Susan Juby and Gilda Joyce Psychic Investigator by Jennifer Allison, and of course anything by Gordon Korman.

Growed-ups

Yes, in keeping with the theme of laughter and silliness I’m not using a proper word for those who are no longer teens. Even if you’re all growed up you can still enjoy a laugh and probably need it more!

We Canadians like to think of ourselves as a funny people so I thought I’d take the opportunity to highlight some of our homegrown talent. Did you know we had all of these books to brighten your day?

Why I Hate Canadians by Will Ferguson

Black and White and Read All Over by Arthur Black

Rick Mercer Report: The Book by Rick Mercer

Your Call is Important to Us: The Truth About Bullshit by Laura Penny

Dear Sad Goat: A Roundup of Truly Canadian Tales and Letters compiled by Bill Richardson

Baby is a Four Letter Word: Surviving the First Two Years of Parenthood by Dorianne Sager

Vinyl Café Diaries by Stuart McLean

When I started the adult list I wasn’t sure how much I would find. Visions of quick summer reads danced in my head and then I found far more than I expected. My summer “to read” list has grown exponentially putting this column together, and I hope yours has too!

Ruth Hamlin-Douglas is the Children's and Youth Services Librarian at the Brodie Library.