Laughable stories

Laugh your head off!

Aiken, Joan: Arabel, Mortimer and the Escaped Black Mamba
Barn Owl Books, 2001

When Mr and Mrs Jones go to the Furriers’ Freewheeling Ball, they leave their daughter Arabel and her pet raven Mortimer with their favourite babysitter Chris Cross. Arabel knows it is going to be great fun, as always. But then they manage to mess up the whole house and spill all the milk, so they’ll have to go get some more milk. Mortimer is fascinated by all the automatic machines they see on their way. You can get almost anything from them, coffee, tea, candy or books, they take photographs and polish your shoes, and so their walk is taking some time. In the meanwhile the Joneses return home earlier. They find an empty house that looks like a crime scene. Something awful must have happened there. They are sure that somebody has kidnapped their daughter and her raven!

Child, Lauren: Utterly Me, Clarice Bean
Orchard Books, 2003

Clarice Bean (who utterly loves the word ‘utterly’) and her best friend Betty Moody love to read stories about Ruby Redfort, an eleven-year-old secret agent and detective. There is going to be a competition about the best project based on books children have read and learnt something from. Clarice and Betty choose to do the project about Ruby Redfort, but their teacher Mrs Wilberton thinks that one can hardly learn anything from that sort of drivel. Clarice Bean is going to prove that nothing could be further from the truth. When the book exhibit winner’s cup is stolen, Ruby Redfort’s wit is utterly needed.

Limb, Sue: Ruby Rogers Is a Waste of Space
Bloomsbury, 2006

Ruby Rogers loves monkeys, wants to be a gangster when she grows up and looks forward to her tenth birthday. Now, the only thing she wants for her birthday is a tree house, but that’s definitely not going to happen: there are no trees in their back yard. Ruby gets to know Holly Helvellyn, a super cool gothic girl also known as The Hellcat. It seems that the Hellcat has a crush on Ruby’s big brother Joe. She asks Ruby to nick something from Joe’s room for her. Ruby is willing to do anything for her, but this is really going to be far too dangerous.

Sachar, Louis: Wayside School Gets a Little
Stranger
Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2004

Another weird and funny book about Wayside school, probably the strangest school there is! When the beloved teacher Mrs Jewls is going to have a baby, there will be several substitute teachers, who make the school even stranger. There is Mr. Gorf with three nostrils, who steals voices from his pupils. Then there is Mrs. Drazil, who never forgives anyone who has forgotten to do his or her homework, not even in twenty years! And, worst of all, Miss Nogard, who has three ears and who can hear what everyone is thinking!

Sage, Angie: My Haunted House
Bloomsbury, 2006

Meet Araminta Spook, who lives with her Uncle Drac and Aunt Tabby in a lovely haunted house. Too bad Aunt Tabby thinks that the house is too big, dusty, dirty, cold and full of spiders, and that they should sell it and move to a nice block of flats. No way could Araminta live in a normal house! All the estate agents and potential buyers must be scared off. Araminta’s Awful Ambush and a couple of helpful ghosts should do the thing! But what if they don’t?

Simon, Francesca: Horrid Henry’s Underpants
Dolphin Paperbacks, 2003

Horrid Henry is here again with his angelic little brother Perfect Peter! This time their parents want to make Henry eat his vegetables. If he eats his vegetables five times in a row, he will be taken to his favourite restaurant Gobble and Go, which serves nothing but pizza, burgers and fifty-two different sorts of ice-cream. But that means that Henry has to get rid of his vegetables five times, without eating them himself, of course! In another story Horrid Henry gets a horrible birthday present from his silly Great-Aunt Greta, who thinks Henry is a girl named Henrietta: pink, frilly lacy girls’ knickers with glittery hearts and bows on them. Of course Henry’s never going to wear them and nobody will find out… Well, we’ll see about that.

Stanton, Andy: You’re a Bad Man, Mr Gum!
Egmont, 2006

Mr Gum is a wicked and disgusting old man, who hates children and animals and whose house is a horrible pigsty, filled with junk and pizza boxes and even the insects that live in his kitchen cupboards are not small but great big ones with faces and names and jobs. But his garden is amazing, so pretty, greeny, flowery and gardeny as can be. How is this possible? Well, maybe he just likes gardening! Oh no, the real reason is that he has to keep the garden tidy because otherwise an angry fairy appears in his bathtub and starts whacking him with a frying pan. You see, there’s a simple explanation for everything! Well, I think you got an idea of what sort of a book this is. Hilarious and completely crazy!

Stine, R.L.: Shake, Rattle & Hurl!
HarperCollins, 2006

Do you like fart jokes, burps, messing with food and all sorts of disgusting things? You will love Rotten School!  You probably go home every day after school, but Rotten students don’t, because it’s a boarding school. Bernie Bridges and his buddies live in the Rotten House dorm, and what they hate most are the Nyce House dorm boys. Those rich and good-looking kids have their own band, The Nyce House Band with Wes Updood, the most awesome saxophone player.  Bernie can’t let them win the Talent Contest. The Rotten House has a secret weapon, Chipmunk, the best rock guitarist in the world. If only he wasn’t the shyest one, too!

The Walker Book of Funny Stories
Walker Books, 2004

Do you remember the legendary simpletons of the Finnish folk tales called hölmöläiset? Well, the people of the village Nornigig seem to be like them in one of the stories in this book. But there are others, too: there`s a story about how a Mexican boy called Little Luis turns the terrible outlaw Bad Pete into a good citizen. Did you know what children are capable of when they don’t want their embarrassing parents to turn up on Parents’ Day at school?

Outi Rantanen
Kallio Library