Why Funny Books?
Why a site for funny books? Well, we’re glad you asked. Firstly, we’re doing this because we LOVE
funny books. Hey, we’re funny authors, what did you expect? Clumpy reviews of
late-nineteenth century Russian novels? No. We prefer fart gags to folk weeping
uncontrollably into their hands because someone’s duck died, and we’re not ashamed.
Even if we should be.
Secondly – and this probably won’t come as much of a surprise - because we believe funny
books are special.
Cue serious bit. Try not to lose the will to go on.
Why do we believe this? Most importantly, because even a small giggle reminds us of something
that sometimes gets overlooked: the fact that it feels GOOD to be alive. But also because laughter
is monumentally important to us human beings. Emotionally, mentally, physically: it’s healthy on every
level. Laughter reduces stress, improves the immune system, makes anger disappear, sprinkles happy
dust over a bad day, conjures kids into well-rounded adults and much, much more. Shared laughter
brings us together and funny books are often where kids begin to discover their own particular stripe
of hilarious. Whether its dark, dry, bonkers or two men fighting over a hat, a sense of humour weaves
magic through our lives. Funny books are important: they’re written by wizards.
Thirdly, we’re doing this because books with a strong sense of humour sometimes get a hard time.
For instance, there are umpteen children’s book awards in the UK and only ONE of them is for funny
books (shout out to the LOLLIES). Funny books are breaking through nowadays but they’re still too
often seen as trivial, of lesser importance, not worth quite as much as “serious” books. Just because
they’ve got bum jokes. Pff. (For funny writers this is infuriating by the way. Because we do all the
stuff that serious writers do – plot, characters, dialogue, etc – and we make kids laugh, too.)
Do we sound bitter? We’re not. But we do think the world would be a better place with more
laughter. And that children’s funny books deserve a place where they’re celebrated and where
they’re taken as seriously as books like Barry Tortoise Finds Out We’re All Going To Die.
This site is our attempt to create that place. We will review great new funny books (and have features
on classics), provide reading lists, have exclusive interviews with some of the most hilarious writers
working today and anything else we can think of that might help put a life-affirming, wet-your-pants
book in front of a child. Because that is what we live for.
You’re welcome to come along for the ride.
Rachel, Tris & Martin
