How to use this Page

By Nina Schuyler, The Children’s Book Review
Published: April 5, 2012

Photo credit: Jasmic

In his essay, “Hypocritical Theory,” in Manhood for Amateurs, Michael Chabon opens with the provocative, “I hate Captain Underpants.” Yes, Chabon agrees the popular series written by Dav Pilkey is “lively, well crafted and snappily designed,” and if he was a kid, he’d probably love the books, too. Really, how could he not enjoy the two potty-minded fourth grade boys who invent Super Diaper Baby? What he hates is that the series has co-opted the gross humor that kids use, typically out of earshot of adults. “The original spirit of mockery has been completely inverted; it is now the adult world that mocks children, implicitly and profitably, speaking its old language, invoking its bygone secret pleasures,” writes Chabon.

If Chabon has trouble with Captain Underpants, he’s probably having a big hissy fit over the scores of books that have followed suit. Writers and publishers have taken note that humor is the way to a kid’s (especially a boy’s) reading heart.  Just this morning, as I drove the carpool of third-grade boys to school, one boy was holding court by reading from The Encyclopedia of Immaturity (full of silly tricks and pranks—how to make noises with different body parts; how to really annoy your older sibling; and the all-important, how to hang a spoon off your nose).

Since the genie has been let out of the bottle, and since April is National Humor Month, I’ve put together a list of some recently published books that will keep your kid laughing (and reading).

Stone Rabbit #7: Dragon Boogie

By Erik Craddock

Erik Craddock is out with #7 in his Stone Rabbit graphic novel series, with its central character a zany, quick-witted rabbit. In #7 Dragon Boogie, when the electricity goes out, Stone Rabbit and his buddies have to play a boring board game, Dragon & Stuff. They unknowingly roll a pair of magical die, and poof! they are transported to the world of the game itself, with wizards and knights, and a dragon with a “bad case of stink breath” who takes offense at being called fat. Eventually they confront the Lord of Darkness, and the fight is on, with one of their weapons being, of course, a “mighty fart.” (Ages 7-10. Publisher: Random House Children’s Books)

Lunch Lady #7: Lunch Lady and the Mutant Mathletes

By Jarrett J. Krosoczka

Jarrett J. Krosoczka is back with

Craddock, Erik. BC Mambo (Stone Rabbit: book 1). Random House, 2009.
Craddock, Erik. Pirate Palooza (Stone Rabbit: book 2). Random House, 2009.

(sorry, I'm not able to load images at the moment for some mysterious reason, hence the lack of book covers!)

In these full-color graphic novels, Stone Rabbit has a series of action-packed and somewhat incomprehensible adventures.

In BC Mambo, he plummets through a hole in his bathroom floor and ends up in the time of dinosaurs, Neolithic rabbits, a crazed genius Neanderthal, and robots. Barbecue sauce and boogers play crucial roles.

In Pirate Palooza, Stone Rabbit and his friend Andy (a dog, I’m pretty sure) find a pirate peg-leg replacement for their broken coffee table leg at their neighborhood comic bookstore – but it turns out that a ghastly pirate has been imprisoned inside the peg-leg. Let loose, he spirits them off to a ghostly pirate ship, where they fight ghosts and play checkers.

The illustrations are frenetic, kinetic, and quite pleasing – but they do move the action forward a bit more quickly than is advisable for a coherent storyline to develop. Will kids mind? Probably not – this stuff is lots of fun. Reluctant readers might even take the time to read the vocabulary lists at the end of each book – “Rogue (rohg): A dishonest, untrustworthy person who is loyal to no one.”

Not the best graphic novel series out there, but sure to be a crowd pleaser. Recommended for grades 2 – 4.