Funny Stories

by Michael Rosen, Tony Blundell

39 rib-tickling stories and folktales from some of the world's funniest and finest writers including Isaac Bashevis Singer, Margaret Mahy, and Hans Christian Andersen.

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Short Stories

253 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 1992

About the author

Michael Rosen, a recent British Children’s Laureate, has written many acclaimed books for children, including WE'RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, and I’M NUMBER ONE and THIS IS OUR HOUSE, both illustrated by Bob Graham. Michael Rosen lives in London.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Vartika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Children's literature is the perfect antidote for everything that an extended stint with heavy reading does to me. This book is that, and a lot more: it's funny, and evokes the memory of some precious weekends from my salad days, spent skipping up and dragging my dad by his shirtsleeves to a bright little bookshop hidden in an unseemly corner of our neighbourhood — behind the cycle repairman's and the photocopier's and the photo studios — now long gone. I remember when we bought it, too; I had just finished reading my first full-length book (Roald Dahl's Matilda) and decided to reward the effort with something shorter, but just as fun.

Be sure of it, because Funny Stories does have a whole lot of fun in it. Nearly every story in here is as hilarious to me now as it was over a decade ago, but some, like "The Baron Rides Out" (Adrian Mitchell), "Stupid Marco" (Jay Williams) and "The Pudding like a Night on the Sea" (Ann Cameron) were an absolute riot. A whole lot of them are also contemporary retellings of classic fairy tales of the likes of Red Riding Hood, The Princess and the Frog and Hansel and Gretel, with progressive (and often feminist) twists to them that somehow make them all the more entertaining.

Poring over this collection as an adult made me realise how many of the authors I adore as an adult I'd already encountered earlier, notably Italo Calvino! Michael Rosen's selections are truly zany, their effect enhanced by and echoed in Tony Blundell's funky illustrations. To add to it, the book is printed on heavy stock so as to have survived well intact despite a decade of laughter (both slobbery and dry) and rough turning of pages on my own part as well as my younger brother's. What an absolute gem it is.

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 3 out of 5]

The one I laughed at was, foreseeably, Gerald Durrell and a matchbox of scorpions. Several of the stories mention a horse, donkey or mule; these are not always well treated. Other stories cover various animals, again, not always well treated.
Some of the tales are relatively modern; some are ancient folk stories. One describes how the fishes reacted when the trans-Atlantic cable was laid.
Various authors from Andersen to Thurber, but most kids will not be that interested in a wife and husband quarreling repeatedly at dinner parties, so plan to read a couple of short stories per night, if using this as a bedtime book.
I read a paperback. This is an unbiased review.

[Jbussen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Funny? These are not even stories. Every now and again I like to check out a children's/young adult and do a nostalgia thing. This book is just sad. I read one story, and I figured ok miss. I read another, then another, and then said ok last one. They all sucked. Really bad. Not funny, clever, amusing, or sensical. Just sad.
I wonder why others thought of this as more than nonsense. Even that it was passable. I read some reviews and I'm just without words.

[Diba Roshan · Rating 3 out of 5]

قصه های جالبی داشت به یه بار خوندش می ارزید

[behsforensics]

Look at Baron Rides Out
Mitchell, Adrian

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorite story is "Elephant Milk, Hippopotamus Cheese" & "A Pudding Like the Night on the Sea." Most of the stories weren't all that funny, but it's a good read-aloud book.

[Amrita · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a very good book. As it is the funny stories it is realy realy realy funny