Michael Dahl
1 Wonderful!
"Everything Kids' Joke Book" targets children 9 to 12. The first part of the book is jokes of various sorts. The second part has advice on how to tell jokes and make up jokes and be funny. My 8 year old / 2nd grade daughter loves this book and will willingly read it by herself or aloud. This is exactly what she needs to improve her reading skills, and I've found nothing else she is half as willing to read. Some of the jokes use words she doesn't know; a 12 year old would understand all of the jokes and also find the book suitable. Example jokes: "what is a kitten's favorite color? Purr-ple"; "What is a ghost's favorite color? Boo"; "If astronauts are so smart, why do they count backward?"; "What kind of dog does Dracula like? A Bloodhound." Occasionally throughout, there are cute little exercises to do, where the solution is the answer to a riddle, like a very simple cross-word puzzle. My daughter greatly enjoys filling these out. All told, this books is well worth the buying.
2 Not for the 5-6 year old market
This book has many jokes, but also has several pages of workbook exercises on humor. How to make up a joke, how to deliver a punch line, etc. . . It's not a passive reader, the child must interact with the book--and a pen. If you just want a book full of jokes, pick a different one. If you have an independent reader that wants to develop his or her joke telling skills as well as picking up a few new jokes, then this would be a good choice for you.
