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?

Gary Larson and Speed Bump cartoons?

And Miss Manners if gently sardonic is funny enough...

DeeDee

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.

Erma Bombeck articles have been collected into books of clean, suburban, family humor.

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!

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).

Ohhh--- Ohhh--

Betty MacDonald's Miss Piggle-Wiggle.

Omigosh, side-splittingly funny. Even for adults, still funny.

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).

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?

I just tried typing "humor" into the search box at Alibris and came up with a range of decent-looking options...

DeeDee

My older DD has a somewhat twisted sense of humor and enjoyed Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Bill Bryson has some funny books. Monty Python has some too. You'd have to preview them ahead of time so you may have to be selective. Still, we're not talking George Carlin here.

I think Roald Dahl's The Witches is pretty funny and some of his other books. He had a twisted sense of humor too.

My ds7.5 personally loves Gary Larsen but it is a particular type of humor and doesn't necessarily appeal to everyone. Then again, the same could be said for the Captain Underpants series, which is a particular type of humor and doesn't necessarily appeal to everyone either.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys! DD has loved all of the Roald Dahl books as well as the Lemony Snicket series and the Monty Python collection--they are right up her alley. I'll have to get her Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, HK--thanks! And I haven't tried Alibris yet, so thanks for mentioning it, DeeDee--that's a great idea. I can't wait until she's a couple of years older so I won't worry so much about prescreening stuff--that will be so much easier! Thanks again!

Terry Pratchett has some good stuff also like the ones involving the Wee Free Men later the full blown TP books are ( to me at least) hilarious

Ds enjoyed the Gregor the overlander series for laughs. I think he is reading 'Mad Scientist Club' right now, and did some shoulder- surfing-reading along with me of a Dilbert book I grabbed at the library, that is some funnnnnny stuff right there.

This is a great suggestion - see if she likes Wee Free Men or The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. My DD also loved Equal Rites, but that's one of his "grown-up" books. You could also try the Robert Asprin "Myth" series.

Sideways Stories at Wayside School

Strange, but true: when I was about 8 one of my favorite books was Peg Bracken's The I Hate to Cook Book. This accurately presaged future interests in 1) cooking, 2) feminism and 3) sarcasm.

Sample quote: "This book is for those of us who want to fold our big dishwater hands around a dry Martini instead of a wet flounder, come the end of a long day."

DD owns the complete set-- she loves them still for their cleverness and zany narrative qualities.

Awesome, guys! chris1234, I did not realize Suzanne Collins had written other books (duh); plus they're available as Kindle editions! Hooray! DD loved the Hunger Games, so I'm hoping she'll like these others as well. For some reason she hasn't gotten into Dilbert yet but we love it and will keep trying from time to time. (Also the I Hate to Cook Book is available on Kindle, although apparently it's modified, and it looks like they're going to move the Asprin books to Kindle--not that things have to be on Kindle, it just makes them easier to get.)

My DD practically ate those books during April vacation when we took a roadtrip to the desert. We had to download new sets of books at restaurants so she could keep reading during the next leg of the trip (happily, they discounted them if you bought in sets of 3 or 4). Meanwhile, her brothers were busy hyperventilating over iPod Minecraft. Well, at least it kept them from beating each other up.

Don't know how old your DD is, but The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy series is bodacious.

Also Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Sorry didn't find the time to read thru' all the replies but would like to suggest PG Wodehouse's books on Bertie and Jeeves.

Seconding the Wee Free Men (Pratchett). The later books in that series (there are four total) require a little more maturity-- I think it may be the last book where there's a girl beaten by her father because she became pregnant, handled obliquely but a major event in the plot nonetheless. But the first two are fine for someone 8-10 years old who can tolerate some supernatural scariness. The main character is terrific.

DeeDee

"Baby Blues" cartoons are great humor, too. And I second the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books. Also Mr Twiddle books by Enid Blyton.