You Must Be Joking! : Lots of Cool Jokes, Plus 17 1/2 Tips for Remembering, Telling, and Making up Your Own Jokes

Grade 3-6--In his introduction, Brewer explains the value of laughter, points out that wordplay helps to "fire up the brain," and informs readers that telling jokes will allow them to practice their verbal abilities. He also includes some great tips on how to remember, deliver, and create your own quips. This section is a teacher's delight, since it provides inventive ways to improve both writing and speaking skills. The 200 laugh-out-loud jokes invite children to become comedians. The entries are organized into short thematic chapters covering aliens, monsters, computers, food, etc. The cartoon sketches scattered throughout the text add to the humor. A gem among joke books.--Cynde Suite, Bartow County Library System, Adairsville, GA
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Gr. 3-5. Joke books for new readers abound, but this targets middle-graders, even though some of the jokes are the same as one might find in books for younger kids. Brewer offers this not just as a joke book but as a primer for budding comedians. The last chapter has several pages of good tips for joke telling--among them, don't apologize before you tell the joke; and if you mess up, move on. The comedic bits themselves are pretty standard, but there are a lot of them, more than 200. The funnies are divided into topics such as "Unidentified Funny Observations" and "It's So Obvious" ("What do you have growing on your face between your nose and chin? Tulips"). Sprightly ink-and-wash illustrations extend the fun. Ilene Cooper
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