Picture Books to Make Kids (and Parents!) Giggle

Picture Books to Make Kids (and Parents!) Giggle

laughing child image pixabay creative commonsWe all love a good laugh. Sharing a funny picture book is a great way to enhance kids’ enjoyment of reading, and make the bedtime reading routine more fun for mum and dad, too!

Here are some of our favourite child-  and parent-friendly funny books.

We’d love to hear your recommendations for books that dissolve YOUR kids in giggles – please comment below!

Click on the titles or cover images below to find out more about each book in our selection.

We’ve included books which appeal to a range of ages, starting off with gentle humour for the youngest of kids.

slinky-malinkiAll of the titles in Lynley Dodd’s Hairy MacLary series make us smile, but we particularly enjoy the naughty antics of the cat characters and Slinky Malinki is just wonderful. And, we adore the illustrations of animals  making their precarious way onto the boat in Who Sank the Boat, as well as the ending, in which it is the very smallest and least likely animal who sinks the boat … or is it?

Very slightly older kids will be amused by Chu the panda (Chu’s Day), who has a very big sneeze. Will he sneeze, and if so – what will his sneeze do? And there is lots of rhyming fun to be had in Pig the Fibber and The Very Hungry Bear.

Most kids adore – and relate to – the wheedling Pigeon in Mo Willems’ Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus books. No matter how much he sulks or persuades, don’t let him drive the bus!

Famous for the line ‘some days are like that…even in Australia’,  Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day is one of those books that can be read on many levels.  There’s a film of the same name, very loosely based on the book but not half as good.

The Terrible Plop has terrific rhyming text and an energetic, hilarious story: a sound in the forest sets all the animals running from ‘the Terrible Plop’. But has anyone actually seen a Plop…?

THEDAYTHECRAYONSQUITWhat happens when your crayons go on strike? Creative and imaginative, The Day the Crayons Quit has amused kids around the world. There’s also a sequel available now.

Leigh Hobbs’ unique and irreverent characters Old Tom – whose behaviour is rather reminiscent of an eight-year-old boy’s – and Mr Chicken – the eye-boggling enthusiast who is entirely unaware of the effect he has on the people around him –  will keep kids giggling well into primary school.

And finally, the beautifully designed Weasels might just delight parents even more than kids. Anyone who has ever been thwarted by technology in the work place will appreciate this one!

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  1. Amy says:

    Didn’t the Australian edition of “Alexander…” have him always wanting to move to Timbuctoo / Timbuktu?

    • Better Reading says:

      Hi Amy, you’re right, the Australian edition we read years ago had him wanting to move to Timbuktu. Not sure if that separate edition is still available to buy though – the ones we’ve seen recently are from the UK/US. Will have to keep an eye out …

  2. Anne says:

    Books by Mo Willems are hugely popular with pre school children up to 5/6 year olds.

  3. Irene says:

    What Do They Do With All the Poo from all the Animals at the Zoo,
    By Anh Do and Simon Mellor