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Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 353
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Joined: Feb 2012
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DD loves 'humor' books and has worked her way through almost all of Dave Barry's; she has also enjoyed Gordon Kirkland and books on parenting like the Perfect Baby book and Ketchup Is (Not?) A Vegetable. Also loves The Oatmeal, although that's kind of on the edge because sometimes he has inappropriate language and/or topics. She loves Get Fuzzy, Calvin and Hobbes, MAD, the Onion, John Stewart, Steven Colbert, and the like, and has read through most of those books. (Unfortunately we tried Bill Cosby but it didn't take--I think his stuff is so much better when you can see him perform, with those marvelous expressions!). It's been difficult finding new books/authors just because so much stuff does have Adult humor or topics (by which I mean mainly explicit sexual discussions), and from what I can tell many of the 'older' comedians (like Bill Cosby; Mike Nichols and Elaine May) have most of their material on audio. Which is okay, but DD loves to read. So I'm looking for more books with relatively clean grown-up humor... any recommendations?
Last edited by Dbat; 07/06/13 07:37 AM. Reason: clarification, as always
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Joined: Apr 2010
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Gary Larson and Speed Bump cartoons?
And Miss Manners if gently sardonic is funny enough...
DeeDee
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Joined: Nov 2009
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Dbat, this post could have been written about my DD- same humor, same author love, same problem with lack of appropriate yet appealing material. Really hoping someone out there has some good suggestions for you. Right now DD and DH are loving your mention of the Oatmeal, new to us. Thanks!
Not specifically humor books, but when younger DD enjoyed Carl Hiassen's humor (though have still avoided his adult works). Would consider Bill Bryson, though DD hasn't picked them up yet, may be too slow-moving. We have enjoyed Robert Asprin (easy, quick fantasy series laced with hefty doses of humor, old so may be tough to find). She loved Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe/Douglas Adams books, primarily for the humor. The New Yorker often has at least one humor piece per issue, plus the off-beat cartoons; both hits at our house. I will think more on it and try and pick DD's brain for more, but we have been hung up on this, too.
ETA: Mark Twain, Ben Franklin- depends on the piece (the language can be tough) but much of the humor is accessible. Some were better as read-alouds.
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Erma Bombeck articles have been collected into books of clean, suburban, family humor.
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Thanks, guys!
DeeDee--those are great ideas; for some reason she hasn't taken to Gary Larson, but I should show it to her again (we have most of them); maybe she's ready now. Actually Miss Manners is a great idea to help with her understanding more social skill stuff--thanks for the suggestion!
ohmathmom--thanks, I'll try Erma Bombeck; DD has enjoyed the parenting humor books and I think that is a logical next step.
cricket3--thanks very much for the suggestions! If you're looking at the Oatmeal website, I think it's really cool that different links to his various writings cycle at the bottom of the page, so new stuff is always popping up. Just be aware that some of his stuff is quite explicit and may not be stuff you're comfortable with (e.g., how to tell if your cat is gay; also some of the greeting cards about butt humor) so you might stumble across that. And we've been looking at the New Yorker cartoons and discussing the caption contest, so that has been great for trying to explain why the different captions win--so fun! Thanks again!
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Joined: Feb 2011
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You may want to prescreen them (I haven't read any of them for years and years) but for kids (of either gender) from ~7-12 yo, I'd investigate:
Patrick MacManus
Piers Anthony (the Xanth series, some of his other work isn't devoid of 'adult' content, and there are some playful references in Xanth, too, but most of it is VERY tame and not inappropriate for preteens... except for the very first book. Unfortunately.)
DD is a kid who delights in humor and humorous writing; some of her favorite books at ages 4-6 were Far Side anthologies, Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, etc. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert both have books, too, if that helps. DD has enjoyed those books.
Some of Cricket Magazine's publications have nice humor in them-- Muse, in particular, DD has enjoyed for many years and has only outgrown, really, in the past year or two (she's 14 now).
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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Joined: Feb 2011
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Ohhh--- Ohhh--
Betty MacDonald's Miss Piggle-Wiggle.
Omigosh, side-splittingly funny. Even for adults, still funny.
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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Thanks for the heads-up, Dbat; my DD is actually getting to the age where it's not such an issue for her (or is it me?) any more. She was literally laughing out loud at that site.
Thought of two more, not humor, but humorous- the Bertie Wooster books, and stuff with lots of nice wordplay, like the Phantom Tollbooth. My kids also love the sort of throw-away scholastic books like "F in exams" and "F for effort"- silly but fun. Also Lynn Truss' books, especially "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" (but you need to like grammar, or at least not mind it).
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Joined: Feb 2011
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There was something else that came into my Swiss cheese brain momentarily...
hmph. Must ponder and see if it resurfaces. I hate it when that happens to me.
This wasn't it, but I'll suggest it anyway, since a lot of kids love his sense of the absurd/surreal: Roald Dahl?
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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Joined: Apr 2010
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I just tried typing "humor" into the search box at Alibris and came up with a range of decent-looking options...
DeeDee
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