Ricky Vargas is the funniest kid in the world. This book relates three episodes from his life. In “The Unfunny Day Story” Ricky must recover from a case of seriousness. In “The Talent Show Story” he learns an important lesson about saving his comedy material for the spotlight. In “The Substitute Teacher Story” he learns how to deal with a substitute teacher who never laughs, not even at the funniest kid in the world.
This early chapter book is a great stepping stone for kids who feel finished with easy readers, but aren’t quite ready for longer chapter books. There are very few words per page, so the reader isn’t intimidated by lots and lots of text, but the sentences vary in length and structure, providing a more sophisticated reading experience. Where the language in easy readers might seem stilted, this book sounds more natural, and the main character’s voice more authentic. The episodic chapters are more like short stories than pieces of a longer story, which is similar to the format of many easy readers. In that sense, Born to be Funny reminds me a lot of the Horrid Henry books.
What impressed me so much about this book is the quality of the writing. The author clearly chooses his words carefully, and the ones selected are very evocative and powerful. For example, on page 36, he describes two of the performers in the talent show. “Twins Lee and Paul Baron joined the contest, but didn’t really agree on what they would be singing.” There is a lot of information in this sentence - that the boys are twins, that they sing, and that they don’t communicate with one another about joint decisions - but it is delivered in the most economical and most interesting way. To add to the impact of this sentence, illustrator Stacy Curtis provides a drawing of the two boys with speech bubbles over their heads showing that one sings “Yesterday” while the other sings “Tomorrow.” (I laughed out loud when I saw that subtle joke, and I think parents reading this book with their kids - if not the kids themselves - will get a good chuckle out of it as well.)
Another favorite excerpt is on page 61, where Ricky reacts to the arrival of the substitute teacher, Mrs. Adams:
Ricky’s head went “Boing!”
Ricky’s heart went “Boing!”
And Ricky’s pencil box went “Boing!” - because he dropped it on the floor. There are only around a dozen unique words on this page, but again, they set a very specific scene and highlight Ricky’s shock and dismay at being without his beloved classroom teacher, Mrs. Wilder.
Ricky Vargas: Born to be Funny is a funny, boy-friendly early chapter book that favors silly situational humor over bathroom jokes. The story is heavily illustrated, and the pictures incorporate some elements of graphic novels, making it a good choice for visual learners and comics fans. Recommend Born to be Funny to readers of series like Bink & Gollie, Horrid Henry, Horrible Harry, Bad Kitty, Nate the Great, and Martin Bridge.
I received a digital ARC of Ricky Vargas: Born to be Funny from Scholastic via NetGalley.
For more about this book, visit Goodreads and Worldcat.
I have submitted this post to the January 2013 Carnival of Children's Literature, which will be hosted by Melissa at Imagination Soup.
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