I LOVE a funny picture book.As a children's librarian I spend nearly half my working hours reading, ordering, and presenting picture books (like at Storytime). Each week dozens of new titles came across my desk and many were good, some were terrible, and a select few were really excellent.
For me, what makes a funny picture book is the ability to PERFORM it well in front of a group of kiddos. Usually my groups were preschoolers (ages 3-5) and that is who most of these books are best for. That isn't to say that older and younger audiences won't enjoy these, I mean, they are pretty hilarious I usually had the parents laughing too. I like to think they were laughing at the stories and not at my nonsense. But, you never know.
These are in no particular order, but here are my Top Ten Funny Picture Books
1. Guess Again by Mac Barnett - this book presents hilarious riddles that more preschoolers can guess based on the rhyme ... except that answer is ALWAYS wrong. The peak through pages or funny shadows make the reader really think they've got the right answer, only to be foiled yet again. I have never had this book fail with an audience and you always get great participation.
2. Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin - um, who doesn't want to be friends with dragons? I just got to read this at the bookstore last week and all of the kids were so fascinated by the story and laughed at all the right parts. Definitely a winner.
3. Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal - Yes! This book about perception gets the kids laughing (and honestly talking about their book opinions) every time! I usually used this printable and had the kids color it what animal it was ACTUALLY when we finished. Sometimes there were hiliarous pictures - a really excellent bear one time stands out in my mind.
4. Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds - after reading a sweet bunny story like Peter Rabbit, you might be in the mood to switch things up a little with Creepy Carrots. Jasper is always stealing carrots and enjoying them throughly, until one day the zombie-carrot apocalypse starts ... or does it? Shout out to the second hilarious book in this series, Creepy Pair of Underwear.
5. Penguin Problems by Jory John - being a penguin might seem like an ideal life, but penguins have lots of problems too! I like to start by asking kids if they want to be a penguin or how awesome it would be so they are really thinking it'd be awesome before we start. These poor penguins, who knew they had it so hard!
6. Click Clack Moo, Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin - What happens with some silly farm animals are able to get their hooves on a typewriter? Well, let's just say you have to be careful what you ask for in this funny story. I always used this one to jazz up a farm animals story time. Sometimes I'd bring in a typewriter so they kids could write their own missives afterward.
7. This is Not My Hat by Jon Klaassen - the master of funny stories is here with his second book which is the funniest in my opinion. This book is good at encouraging kids to pay attention to the illustrations in a book ... because that's where the funny bits happen here.
8. The Book with No Pictures by BJ Novak - this one definitely goes over better with a slightly older audience (where kiddos know that those letters make words and those words are what I'm reading ... otherwise the weirdness doesn't make sense). Each year the first grade classes would come for storytime and this was my FAVORITE book to read aloud to them. It didn't matter that they had heard it before, because they hadn't heard how I did it and I'm pretty over the top on this one. This might be one of those titles that was so funny because they were laughing AT me, but that's okay.
9. Bark, George by Jules Feiffer - so I was SUPER lucky to work at a library with really talented other librarians like Miss Ann who turned a giant dog stuffed animal into a sort of puppet/prop for George to reenact the whole story. I even had a giant vet glove to wear while doing it. I'm not sure if it was the prop or the story that makes this one so funny, but it is a lesser known book that is super funny and makes a great gift for younger preschoolers.
10. Chloe and the Lion by Mac Barnett and Adam Rex - the fab duo is back and this time Chloe is on an adventure with a lion ... but it should probably be a dragon. This book is a funny battle between author and illustrator and everyone laughs in the end. Great for demonstrating what the author does and what the illustrator does while laughing the whole time.
Other stand outs because I can't stick to 10 ...
Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein
I Don't Want to Be a Frog by Dav Petty
Telephone by Mac Barnett
Oh No! by Mac Barnett
Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas
Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great by Bob Shea
The Secret Science Project that Almost Ate the School by Judy Sierra
That is NOT a Good Idea by Mo Willems
What are your favorite funny picture books?
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