Children's Books That Amuse You

[newfoundsky]

The topic today Escapist is as a young adult/adult, have you ever read a children's book that has absolutely made you lose it. Because I just did.

The book features a horse. The horse goes into town and talks to store keepers, pedestrians etc. Nobody questions why a horse is talking. Typical kid book stuff. And then it happens. The horse goes to a gas station and compliments a man's car, saying he likes the color. The man says, "Thanks, it's brand new! It has the best engine and get's 400 horse power!"

And this fucking horse, his face drawn to be completely blank just says "I have one horse power."

THIS FUCKING HORSE.

Has a childrens book ever made you lose your it so your kid can't sleep because you are laughing so hard?

 

[Euryalus]

I haven't read a children's book in a long time... so I can't add to this as an adult... but the magic tree house books and the seven Chinese brothers were the shit.

I read through any of the former I could get my hands on, and probably reread the latter a bajillion times.

 

[JoJo]

I found it hard to keep a straight face when reading Enid Blyton books to my little sister, mainly the Famous Five. The archaic dialogue sounds a bit ridiculous when read aloud and the temptation to put on accents was too much to resist, plus I used to try to change the dialogue every now and again to see if she was still listening e.g. 'And then they all had Timmy the dog for dinner', she always noticed, didn't help that I couldn't stop myself laughing whenever I tried to pull one over her

 

[Scarim Coral]

There was this book in the High School library that pretty much cause my former friend to lose their shit just from the title alone, "Whistle and I'll come". The image was just a sheepdog in some green field which I assuming the story was about some sheepdog coming home or to try to get to some place.

 

[Anarchemitis]

English the best learning phonics for superior knowledge obtain.

 

[Queen Michael]

I love the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Make me laugh every time.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Volunteering at my local library's Reader's Circle event, I've seen quite a few good successors to Dr. Seuss, Thomas and the Bearnsteins (though I hear the latter two are still going strong despite being around when I was just learning to read).

The first Elephant and Piggie (Mo Willems) books won some awards, and they remind me of a cleaner Homestar Runner, actually making me laugh several times. There was one character who even got a spinoff book even though most of the time the books are just Elephant and Piggie.

The Flying Beaver Brothers' books (Maxwell Eaton III) are a bit higher grade, but also hilarious. Lots of fourth-wall breakage and self-depreciation.

I suppose one mark of a good kid's book is if the library uses it for Reader's Circle despite it being over ten years old. Captain Underpants fits that qualification like, er... underpants.

 

[sextus the crazy]

The Phantom Tollbooth is still a great children's book. The amount of wordplay and thought that went into this book makes it still an entertaining read even in adulthood.

 

[Barbas]

I used to laugh myself stupid at the Children's Book of Verse. There was one poem in particular that had a profound effect on me:

Spoiler: On the Ning Nang Nong.

I guess it's all in the reading. Do it in a weird enough voice and it'd probably reduce anyone to giggling fits.

There was this book in the High School library that pretty much cause my former friend to lose their shit just from the title alone, "Whistle and I'll come". The image was just a sheepdog in some green field which I assuming the story was about some sheepdog coming home or to try to get to some place.

That actually sounds like it might have been an old ghost story:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ghost_Stories_of_an_Antiquary/%27Oh,_Whistle,_and_I%27ll_Come_to_You_My_Lad%27

 

[Lilani]

I bought The Twenty-One Balloons [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twenty-One_Balloons] a while back when I found it at a bookstore, just because I remembered reading it as a kid and being totally captivated by it. However, when I reread it, I realized it's got a lot in common with the movie Up. It's about a man named Professor William Waterman Sherman, who retires and creates what is essentially a small hot air balloon house with the intention of circumnavigating the earth. However, a seagull punctures his balloon and he crash lands on the volcanic Island of Krakatoa, and finds it to be inhabited by several families. These people live in veritable mansions, have lots of steam-powered machinery that makes their lives easy and full of leisure, and they eat the finest foods like a bunch of kings.

Turns out, Krakatoa's volcano has produced a cave full of diamonds, which the people on the island periodically take to the mainland and exchange for all the building materials and foodstuffs they need. But, they are determined to live away from the rest of the world and not tell a soul about it, because they know the cave has so many diamonds that if it were discovered, they would become worthless. After a few days of enjoying all the wonders the families have built on the island, the volcano begins to erupt and threatens to destroy the whole island. So Professor Sherman and all the families make a huge flying raft with his original balloon plus 20 others (thus the title of the book), and they fly away with only moments to spare before the island is consumed by the volcano. All of the families eventually parachute off of the raft into countries like India and Belgium to start new lives, but Sherman hangs on until the thing crashes into the Atlantic ocean, where he's rescued and taken back to his home. The whole journey takes about three weeks.

The story is told from the perspective of Professor Sherman after he's been rescued, telling this hometown the story as he's recovering from his crash into the ocean. At the end people are skeptical, but then he jumps out of bed, shows them the diamond cuff links he was given by his rescuers on Krakatoa. And then he makes plans to sell the cuffs so he can build a new balloon which should keep him aloft for at least a year.

So a little more lighthearted than Up, but as much as I'd love for a company like Disney to adapt this book, I can't help but feel like people would still draw many comparisons, and it would be avoided because of that. If they did it right they could really play off the aesthetics of hot air balloons and late 19th century airship motifs and give it a distinctive look. But alas, I can only dream.

 

[Vault101]

Rhold Dahl never gets old...though it is funny to see how much the guy hated TV...I wonder if The Witches and Harry Potter could exist in the same universe

in year 8 or 9 I was once bored at school (and we were in the libary doing....something) I was sitting against one of the shelves and randomply grabbed a book called "The sheep Pig" and started reading...I was like "heh this is exactly like-OH MY GOD, ITS BABE!!!"

The only real difference between the book and the movie was the charachter Rex (or lack thereof in the book)

also if youre Australian you might be familiar with Paul Jennings books....a later series of books very similar are the "just" series...as is "just crazy" "just disgusting" ect

the stories were about this one kid who would do insane things...like get his freind to tie him to a weather balloon, dress up as a girl and follow his sister to a dance just to piss her off, and I think he ended up naked more than once

not only that but like the cover the margins were filled with psychotic doodles that has a life of their own...theres a friggen subplot about the monster who has the "page numbers" on his side talking to the reader, commenting on the oage numbers...eating himself and having an argument with an extra head he grows. Plus a flip book in the corner

 

[Michael Tabbut]

I occasionally look at some of the books I read back in grade school to see if I still like them. The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly is still great in its simple black comedy and the Captain Underpants series can still make me chuckle a little.

 

[Tiamattt]

Eh, absolutely lose it no but there are a few books that my kid has that does make me chuckle, or at least puts a smile on my face.

The Old Lady who swallowed a Chick. - Cute Spin on the old song

Clicky Clack Moo Cows that type - Another cute story about some rather smart cows going on strike

Elephant and Piggie books - They're really simple yet surprisingly charming in their own little way. The first one my kid got "We're in a book" was a neat little story of 4th wall breaking and we had lots of fun reading it over and over again.

Amelia Bedelia books are also pretty good for the younger kids, except they like to repeat the words "Amelia Bedelia" a lot. Doesn't make for great bed time reading when the reader's really thirsty after they're done.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

I can't recall the name of it, but there was a series of children's detective books where one of the characters was a kid who was stuck wth invisiblity who sometimes used his invisibility to spy on people (but he wore his invisible clothes to avoid the nakedness thing), now while I am definitely a pervert in the present day, the me back then STILL realized how this power could be abused.

So now I look back on it and laugh.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

... *Grin*

Spoiler

And the rest of the series.

Sleep well.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

... *Grin*

Spoiler

And the rest of the series.

Sleep well.

Man, some of those were good and some were just plain stupid.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

... *Grin*

Spoiler

And the rest of the series.

Sleep well.

Man, some of those were good and some were just plain stupid.

Yeah, some of the stories definitely haunted with me longer than I could remember the title of the book series.
One day, when I was a kid, there was some kind of book event going on at school, and I got handed one of the series by a teacher. I read it, and was hooked.

The art in these books, though? It's just so well done, and twisted.

 

[BunnyMomiji]

My favorite new children's books are Skippy John Jones, which is about an adorable Siamese kitten that thinks he's a chihuahua and goes on adventures with his beanie baby dogs. There's a line in that goes, "First they had a fiesta, then they had a siesta."

Also, I Want My Hat Back is GLORIOUS. Specially in illustration and expression.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

The Captain Underpants and A Series of Unfortunate Events series (what the fuck is the plural for ?series??) are two notable examples that come to mind, both with their own inimitable senses of humour that?s appealing for all ages.

 

[Pink Gregory]

The Bald Twit Lion and whatever Spike Milligan's other one was, about the Dragon or whatever.

Can't help but feel such wild surrealism would actually go over a child's head, but I can dig it.