In the last few months I’ve been realizing how much more Ephraim enjoys chapter books when they are funny. For that reason I’ve been trying to add more funny chapter books into our rotation and alternating them with the more serious ones.

There are some writers that just have that knack for writing silly chapter books, the more out there the better it seems sometimes.

I actually had a few more books to add to this list, I’ll have to make a part two soon!

What are some of the funniest chapter books you have read? I’d love for you to let me know in the comments!

 

 

TEN FUNNY CHAPTER BOOKS THAT WILL HAVE KIDS LAUGHING OUT LOUD

This book always has me in stitches along with the kids. This is great as a real aloud though I personally think it’s even better as an audiobook, Neil Gaiman does an amazing job narrating his own book.

Fortunately, the Milk

An absolute delight of a madcap story for the young (and young-at-heart), with equal parts pirates and piranhas, adventure and aliens, oddity and love.

“I bought the milk,” said my father. “I walked out of the corner shop, and heard a noise like this: t h u m m t h u m m. I looked up and saw a huge silver disc hovering in the air above Marshall Road.”

“Hullo,” I said to myself. “That’s not something you see every day. And then something odd happened.”

Find out just how odd things get in this hilarious story of time travel and breakfast cereal.

 

You may notice Mr. Dahl show up a couple times in this book list, while not all his books are my favorite he’s got some really funny ones!

The BFG

The BFG is no ordinary bone-crunching giant. He is far too nice and jumbly. It’s lucky for Sophie that he is. Had she been carried off in the middle of the night by the Bloodbottler, or any of the other giants—rather than the BFG—she would have soon become breakfast. When Sophie hears that the giants are flush-bunking off to England to swollomp a few nice little chiddlers, she decides she must stop them once and for all. And the BFG is going to help her!

 

We read this book over a year ago and the kids will often still call a pen a frindle. Ephraim actually made up his own word when he was three: fickadits (I’m not 100% sure on the spelling but that’s as phonetic as I could make it), it means “small pieces of paper”, it’s been over two years and that word is still going strong in our house.

Frindle

Is Nick Allen a troublemaker? He really just likes to liven things up at school — and he’s always had plenty of great ideas. When Nick learns some interesting information about how words are created, suddenly he’s got the inspiration for his best plan ever…the frindle. Who says a pen has to be called a pen? Why not call it a frindle? Things begin innocently enough as Nick gets his friends to use the new word. Then other people in town start saying frindle. Soon the school is in an uproar, and Nick has become a local hero. His teacher wants Nick to put an end to all this nonsense, but the funny thing is frindle doesn’t belong to Nick anymore. The new word is spreading across the country, and there’s nothing Nick can do to stop it.

 

Can you imagine having twelve penguins in your home? Some silly antics ensue in this book!

Mr. Popper’s Penguins

The story of what happens when a small town house painter receives a penguin from Antarctica as a gift. A silly story that involves a troop of penguins and a show they take across the country.

 

The other day I thought I was hearing a dog make a weird sound outside but when I went to investigate it turns out it was Ephraim listening to this on audio in his room and just giggling away.

George’s Marvelous Medicine

George is alone in the house with Grandma. The most horrid, grizzly old grunion of a grandma ever. She needs something stronger than her usual medicine to cure her grouchiness. A special grandma medicine, a remedy for everything. And George knows just what to put into it. Grandma’s in for the surprise of her life—and so is George, when he sees the results of his mixture!

 

This is another book that Ephraim will giggle to when he is listening to it on audio, I have no idea how many times he has listened to it already.

The Mouse and The Motorcycle

In this imaginative adventure from Newbery Medal–winning author Beverly Cleary, a young mouse named Ralph is thrown into a world of excitement when a boy and his shiny toy motorcycle check in to the Mountain View Inn.

When the ever-curious Ralph spots Keith’s red toy motorcycle, he vows to ride it. So when Keith leaves the bike unattended in his room one day, Ralph makes his move. But with all this freedom (and speed!) come a lot of obstacles. Whether dodging a rowdy terrier or keeping his nosy cousins away from his new wheels, Ralph has a lot going on! And with a pal like Keith always looking out for him, there’s nothing this little mouse can’t handle.

 

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has some silly cures, I think what often has my kids giggling is that they can see themselves in some of the children she cures.

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle

Meet Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle! She lives in an upside-down house with a kitchen that is always full of freshly baked cookies. She was even married to a pirate once! Best of all, she knows everything there is to know about children.

When Mary turns into an Answer-Backer or Dick becomes Selfish or Allen decides to be a Slow-Eater-Tiny-Bite-Taker, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has the perfect cure. And her solutions always work, with plenty of laughs along the way. This is the book that started it all!

 

Who doesn’t secretly wish they had a friend like Pippi? From sleeping backwards in her bed to being able to lift her horse she’s one amazingly silly girl.

Pippi Longstocking

Tommy and his sister Annika have a new neighbor, and her name is Pippi Longstocking. She has crazy red pigtails, no parents to tell her what to do, a horse that lives on her porch, and a flair for the outrageous that seems to lead to one adventure after another!

 

This is a super short book so we’ve read it a number of times and it still causes giggles. If only there were an anti-freckle juice I may give it a try.

Freckle Juice

More than anything in the world, Andrew Marcus wants freckles. His classmate Nicky has freckles—they cover his face, his ears, and the whole back of his neck. But when Andrew asks Nicky where he got them, Nicky just says he was born with them. Some help he is!

That’s when Sharon offers Andrew her secret freckle juice recipe—for fifty cents, she promises, Andrew can look just like Nicky. His freckleless days are over! He rushes home to whip up the concoction. Grape juice, vinegar, mustard…

But what starts out as a simple freckle juice recipe quickly turns into something disastrous. Andrew is still determined to get his freckles, and to show that pesky Sharon that she doesn’t know everything—and he has the perfect solution! Or does he?

 

 

I haven’t read this one with the kids yet but I still strongly remember reading it in grade 5 and it’s going on the list to read to the kids shortly!

How to Eat Fried Worms

Because of a bet, Billy is in the uncomfortable position of having to eat fifteen worms in fifteen days. The worms are supplied by his opponent, whose motto is “The bigger and juicier, the better!” At first Billy’s problem is whether or not he can swallow the worm placed before him, even with a choice of condiments from peanut butter to horseradish. But later it looks as if Billy will win, and the challenge becomes getting to the worm to eat it. Billy’s family, after checking with the doctor, takes everything in stride. They even help Billy through his gastronomic ordeal, which twists and turns with each new day, leaving the outcome of the bet continually in doubt.

 

If you like funny chapter books you may also like the lists of funny picture books I’ve shared before. You can check those out here, here and here.

 

Now, let me know some of your favorite funny chapter books!