It’s Roald Dahl Funny Prize day and a crowd of crows are off to the award ceremony to support Simon Puttock and Nadia Shireen, shortlisted for the brilliant (and very funny) The Baby That Roared.
And in honour of today’s prize, we’ve all been thinking about our favourite funny books. I can’t think of a harder sort of writing to do well (particularly when it’s for a very young reader) and I’m extraordinarily envious of anyone who’s up to the task. There are, it struck us, a healthy number of funny books on the Nosy Crow list itself:
★ The Grunts in Trouble is the very funny first book in the new series by Funny Prize-winning author Philip Ardagh and Pip and Posy illustrator Axel Scheffler. The Sunday Times wrote that, “Axel Scheffler’s illustrations impart a quirky comic charm to Ardagh’s daft and comic story about the Grunts, whose silliness and bad behaviour are in the tradition of Roald Dahl’s Twits and Andy Stanton’s Mr Gum.”
★ My Best Friend and Other Enemies by Catherine Wilkins is a hilarious, knowing debut that will have you positively laughing at loud. But don’t take out word for it… Harry Hill called it “hilarious”.
★ The Vulgar the Viking series is perfect material for young fiction readers – funny, silly and anarchic.
★ The Mega Mash-Up and Magical Mix-Up series, by Nikalas Catlow and Tim Wesson and Marnie Edwards and Leigh Hodgkinson respectively, are both great for reluctant readers – hilarious combinations of fiction and doodle books with proper stories and great characters.
★ Goldilocks and Just the One Bear by Leigh Hodgkinson is a very clever fractured fairytale with a hilarious twist, newly longlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal.
★ And of course, The Baby that Roared – our first Funny Prize-shortlisted book!
And here are some of our other choices:
Kate – who could not restrict her selection to fewer than four titles – chose You’re a Bad Man, Mr. Gum! by Andy Stanton, Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins, The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith, and Not Now, Bernard by David McKee.
Louise, demonstrating a more admirable level of restraint, picked Pants, by Giles Andrea and Nick Sharratt.
Kristina has nominated The Great Dog Bottom Swap by Peter Bently and Mei Matsuoka.
Shelly (who’s temping with us for a little while) chose the darkly funny I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen.
And a few of my own favourites are The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, our upcoming picture book Weasels, by Elys Dolan (it is HILARIOUS) and – by the master himself – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.
What are your favourite funny children’s books? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!
