Kingfisher Treasury of Funny Stories Book

Sixteen very funny stories are collected in this rib-tickling volume — from a global gathering of authors who know how to make young children laugh.

Barbara L. Talcroft - Children's Literature

Kingfisher's "Treasury" series includes anthologies of stories on many topics, including ballet, pets, and pirates. This is meant to be the funny one. Unfortunately, the stories just are not that amusing. In spite of the inclusion of works by very respectable writers (Margaret Mahy, Anne Fine, Helen Cresswell, Robert Newton Peck), few seem likely to raise a chuckle, much less a hearty laugh. Many of the stories are English; a few are American or Australian. Perhaps the British humor and subject matter do not travel well or perhaps taking a chapter from a book does not allow enough time for the characters or the humor to develop. Irwin Shapiro's Strong but Quirky, a tall tale about Davy Crockett, has a certain over-the-top charm, while Margaret Mahy's The Librarian and the Robbers provides some engaging characters and deadpan narration. Two brief folk tales, one Chinese and one Caribbean, are interesting and mildly amusing (they have, after all, survived several centuries), but most of the others are just rather lame. Billing the contents as "sixteen of the funniest stories around" will inevitably lead to disappointment for readers and listeners intended as the audience. 2003, Kingfisher,