Sunday, March 3rd, 2013...12:47 pm

Books To Make You and Your Kids Laugh

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Toddlers and preschoolers are silly little people. Nora and Miles constantly make me laugh – amuse me with their silly expressions, huge imaginations and their little jokes. At five, Nora is getting more and more sensitive to when people are laughing with her versus when they are laughing at her. And Miles, he’s only sensitive in the way that getting a laugh makes him want to repeat the behavior even more. We have to be careful what we laugh at.

I’ve written about lots of books that teach lessons, that entertain with flaps and hidden pictures, that tap into interests we hope our children will also latch onto. But sometimes, books should just make us laugh.

Silly Books To Read With Your Toddlers

The first book that I remember eliciting a good old belly laugh from Nora was a good old Sandra Boynton classic. Most of Boynton’s books are funny – all that I’ve read are entertaining – but Blue Hat, Green Hat has a special way of making toddlers laugh. There’s nothing like seeing people, or animals, do something wrong. Putting a shoe on your hand will get them every time. And the same is true for the confused animals in this book.

There is much silliness to be had beyond just Boynton, however. Another favorite is The Monster at the End of this Book . In this book, the very lovable Grover is afraid of the monster and tries to prevent the reader from getting to the end. The more you put into reading this book, the more laughter arises. And then, when you get to the end and your toddler realizes, along with Grover, that he is indeed the monster, they are even more amused. (I really like this book as an iPad app too).

Mo Willems characters, Piggie and Elephant, have their own hilarious routine as well. I get an equally big kick out of We Are in a Book! as Nora does. As Piggie and Elephant play tricks on the reader (they try to get you to say “Banana”), Nora and I laugh almost as hard as the characters in the book do (there are entire pages filled with nothing but ha ha ha ho ho ho!).

And lastly, I highly recommend, Dragons Love Tacos, especially if you live in a place like we do where tacos are just an integral part of the food culture. The conversational tone and the ridiculousness of dragons loving tacos and simultaneously hating hot salsa amuses me even on the nights where I wish bedtime stories would move along a little bit faster.

 

What are your favorite silly books to read with your kids? I’d love to hear suggestions in the comments!

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