School Library Journal Review

Gr 3-5-Q: What's better than a third grader who knows a new joke? A: A third grader who knows 560 new jokes. This series contains eight books, each of which has 23 pages of jokes, with one to six jokes per page. That's a lot of jokes, including puns ("What do bees chew? Bumblegum") gross jokes ("Two cannibals are eating a clown and one says, 'Does this taste funny to you?'"), and jokes so old they might predate recorded history ("What makes more noise than a dinosaur? Two dinosaurs.") In other words, there's something for everyone here. Six of these books are subject specific (e.g., School, Baseball), but two, Tongue Twisters and Knock-Knock Jokes, offer a veritable smorgasbord of these classic forms. A clean design that relies upon simple shapes, funky bright colors, and understated texture gives this series an up-to-date look, while abundant sharp, silly illustrations by veteran cartoonist Ostrom reinforce some of the more visual jokes. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.