Tag Archives: Louis Sachar

30 TIPS for Writing Delightful Children’s Books Day 10

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WRITING CHILDREN’S BOOKS TIP #10: HUMOUR

Children love to laugh!! Do you want to write stories that children will love and read over and over and over again? Do you want to delight your readers and make them crave your stories? Yes?

Make your stories funny! Yes, make children laugh!

TIPS FOR WRITING HUMOUROUS STORIES FOR CHILDREN

  • Use humorous experiences from every day life. Think of funny things that have happened to you, your friends and family. Tweak them a bit and use them! See picture book, The End of Something Wonderful: A Practical Guide to a Backyard Funeral.
  • Please please please keep the jokes as short as possible.
  • Surprise your readers! See picture book, We Don’t Eat Our Classmates
  • Bathroom humour: Stories featuring body sounds are a hit with younger children especially books with farts and burps! See chapter book Gangster Granny by David Walliams PS: Don’t go over the top!
  •  Stories where children play pranks on or triumph over adults: See Captain Underpants
  • Exaggerate, yes, stretch regular situations to the point of absolute silliness!  
  • Create absolutely totally ROTFL funny whacky characters
  • Wordplay!! Try these and some sarcasm too to score high points with your readers!

Remember, don’t try too hard! There’s nothing more annoying than an overstressed joke.

NB: Humour can also be used to write about tough topics to make them easier for young readers to digest. The best example of this is Stephanie Lucianovic’s The End of Something Wonderful: A Practical Guide to a Backyard Funeral.

Here are some of my all-time favourites:

Picture Books

  • B J Novak. The Book with No Pictures.
  • Mo, Willem. Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.
  • Ryan T Higgins. We Don’t Eat Our Classmates

Chapter Books

  • Dav Pilky, The Captain Underpants Series
  • Peggy Parish, The Amelia Bedelia Series

Middle Grade

Louis Sachar, Sideways Stories from the Wayside School

  1. Action: Read like a Writer

Identify the funniest books you’ve read and try to figure out the elements the author utilized to make you laugh. Can you see any of the tips above?

2. Read.

So, want to write a funny story? Start reading. You can start with some of the books on my list. 😊

Want to write a story for children, don’t know where to start? Tell me all about it and we can figure out the theme and some mentor texts for you!

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Photo credit: www.amazon.com   

Holes

13+, AGES 8 - 12, BOOK REVIEW, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Title: Holes

Author: Louis Sachar

Publisher:  Bloomsbury Publishing

Number of pages: 233 

Type of Book: Middle Grade, Fairytale, Folktale, Adventure, Mystery. 

Age: 10+

Buy it here: https://www.amazon.com/Holes-Louis-Sachar/dp/0440414806/ref=pd_sbs_1?pd_rd_w=T5aro&pf_rd_p=965b754e-4670-4322-863d-d4929773ec49&pf_rd_r=KGQV70T7HK8VM5JYXH37&pd_rd_r=17b1b8b7-2dcc-45ab-8e21-fe1cfd2bfdb0&pd_rd_wg=HdnfV&pd_rd_i=0440414806&psc=1 and @thebookwormcafeng on Instagram.

Price: $ 8.49 or N3000

MY SUMMARY

Stanley Yelnats and all his family members have bad luck, it is so bad that Stanley ends up in a juvenile detention centre in the middle of the desert for a crime he didn’t commit. At Camp Green, he must dig holes every day under the hot sun: back-breaking and totally boring stuff until he finds a tube of lipstick in one of his holes and then he goes after a runaway. Then, the adventure begins. The author goes back and forth between three stories: Stanley’s story, a fairytale and a folktale, spinning a thrilling, humorous and powerful story about friendship, crime and punishment.

THUMBS UP AND DOWN

UP: I enjoyed this book as a reader and a writer! The reader in me LOVED the parallel stories; one contemporary, one fairy tale and one folk tale, each with its own fair share of excitement, adventure and suspense. The deadly yellow-spotted lizard, “Kissing Kate” the outlaw, the search for the treasure, and the warden (this woman slapped someone with a snake’s venom) were some of the highlights of the book. This book is a must read for children and adults alike!!

For Ugo, the writer, the highlight was the parallel structure and how all three stories tied up neatly in the end. Just wondering how they were connected and trying to figure it out added to the mystery of the book. Sachar is a wonderful writer with the power to thrill with words. The blend of fairy tale, fantasy, adventure, mystery, humour, folktale and realism in on package is mind-blowing. It is a great mentor text for parallel narratives.   

DOWN: Nada …

RATING

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HAVE FUN WITH THIS BOOK

  1. Read an excerpt here: https://www.npr.org/books/titles/204896601/holes 

CHALLENGE: Holes

CREATE (WRITE a Story/Poem OR DRAW)

  1. Write a 1,000-word story with 2 parallel stories.

Send your answers to ugochinyelu.anidi@gmail.com.

Entry requirements: Entrants must be within the 10 – 12 age range. The first correct entry will be announced on this page and will win a copy of this book.

Answers must be submitted before 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, February 7th 2021.

Next Book of the Week:

MEANWHILE BACK AT THE RANCH by Trinka Hakes Noble

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Dada Ade and the Good Hair Fairy

AGES 4 - 8, BOOK REVIEW, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Title: Dada Ade and the Good Hair Fairy

Author: Venessa Scholtz

Publisher:  Farafina Tuuti

Number of pages: 24

Type of Book: Picture Book, African, African Folktales.

Age: 4 – 8

Buy it here: https://farafinabooks.com/book?b=2074; @thebookwormcafeng on Instagram.

Price: N1,000

MY SUMMARY

In this book by the 2016 Golden Baobab picture book award-winner Venessa Scholtz, the reader embarks on a journey with young Dada Ade who doesn’t like her kinky, curly, crimped, wild and unruly hair. Wanting to exchange her hair for something better, Dada Ade sets out to find the Good Hair Fairy. On her way, she meets several animals who offer her their ‘hair’: the furry cat, the feathered duck, the scaly chameleon. But the best part of the story comes when Dada Ade finally meets the Good Hair Fairy. Read the story to find out the grand surprise at the end.

THUMBS UP AND DOWN

UP: Told in a manner reminiscent of the folktales I heard as a child, this made me smile. My boys and I loved it. The text is lyrical and makes for a great read-aloud. The story is fun and educational; readers learn about different types of animal body coverings/hair. Alaba Onajin again provides vibrant illustrations which make an already good book even better. The icing on the cake is the surprise at the end of the book plus the lesson.  

DOWN: None

RATING

🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

HAVE FUN WITH THIS BOOK

  1. Learn about hair, fur, feathers and scales here: https://mothernatured.com/animal-exploration/fur-feather-and-scales-a-cover-up/

CHALLENGE: Dada Ade and the Good Hair Fairy

CREATE (WRITE a Story/Poem OR DRAW)

  1. Draw and colour 4 creatures, 1 of which must have hair, feather, fur or scales.

4 – 6 year olds

  • Make a list of 15 animals, 5 of which must have fur, scales or feathers.

7 – 8 year olds

Send your answers to ugochinyelu.anidi@gmail.com.

Entry requirements: Entrants must be within the 4 – 8 age range. The first correct entry will be announced on this page and will win a copy of this book.

Answers must be submitted before 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, January 31st 2021.

Next Book of the Week:

HOLES by Louis Sachar

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