It is a late Friday afternoon in July. A critic named Jan (her real name) is sitting at a table in the café of a good suburban public library.
Jan has placed two books in front of her on the table. One is Lyle, Lyle Crocodile (Houghton Mifflin, 1962), a handsome, award-winning hardcover book that she has checked out of the library. The other is Awesome Good Clean Jokes for Kids (Harvest House, 1992), a cheap mass-market paperback that she has just picked up at CVS.
She is trying to decide which book to review and is leaning toward Lyle, because she didn’t get it off a rack that also had books about iffy herbal remedies and end-of-the-world prophecies.
An 11-year-old girl named Olivia (not her real name) starts to walk by. She does not know Jan but stops instantly when she sees Awesome Good Clean Jokes for Kids.
OLIVIA: I love that book! There’s a really good joke on page 103. It’s in the “knock, knock” section.
JAN: Would you show it to me? (She opens the book to page 103.)
OLIVIA: There it is at the bottom of the page.
JAN: “Knock, knock. / Who’s there? / Noah. / Noah who? / Noah good place we can go for dinner?”
OLIVIA: That’s my favorite. I like another one on that page, too. The one about the turnip.
JAN: “Knock, knock. / Who’s there? / Turnip. / Turnip who? / Turnip the heat, it’s cold in here!”
OLIVIA: I like that one because I really like turnips.
JAN: Do you think other 11-year-olds would like this book? Or do you think it would be better for another age?
OLIVIA: I think some 11-year-olds would like it. But I think it’s best for about 6-year-olds. My brother is six, and it’s his favorite book. We had a copy of it already, but my mother had to go to CVS and buy him his personal copy.
JAN: Why do you think your brother likes it so much?
OLIVIA: He like all those silly things like Captain Underpants.
Bob Phillips’s Awesome Good Clean Jokes for Kids (Harvest House, 207 pp., $4.99, paperback) also has riddles, daffy definitions, and many other kinds of jokes for ages 6 and up. It is available at drug- and other stores, including online and retail booksellers.
© 2008 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.
www.janiceharayda.com and www.twitter.com/janiceharayda
One-Minute Book Reviews 
What a great review! Sometimes we forget to ask the kids what THEY think about children’s books. 😉
Comment by speedytexaslibrarian — July 25, 2008 @ 10:16 pm |
We sure do. What really got me was that this girl had memorized the page number of her favorite joke. Afterward, I started thinking: Could I tell a stranger the page number of my favorite part of any book I love?
Comment by 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — July 25, 2008 @ 11:04 pm |
Your anecdote, the setting, and Miss Olivia herself are as good reading as the joke book that Olivia touts. Excellent. And I’m off to the bookstore today with a list of several of your recommendations in hand. And yes (from many many blogs ago) I have Cry the Beloved Country to read now, waiting, and will report in on it when finished.
Comment by oh — July 26, 2008 @ 10:17 am |
Would love to know how you like “Cry the Beloved Country.” Thanks for your comment.
Comment by 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — July 26, 2008 @ 12:18 pm |