The Old Joke Book

by Janet Ahlberg

A collection of humorous riddles, cartoon strips, and poems featuring the Bogies, Little Mo and her Magic Pencil, Bully Bertha, and others.

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books, Humor

33 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Janet Ahlberg (1944-1994) was a British children's book illustrator, and the co-creator, together with her husband Allan Ahlberg, of the best-selling Jolly Postman series. Born as Janet Hall in Yorkshire in 1944, she studied at Sunderland Technical College, where she met Ahlberg. The two married in 1969, and began to work together, publishing their first co-venture - The Old Joke Book - in 1976. She won the 1978 Kate Greenaway Medal from the British Library Association - an award recognizing the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject - for Each Peach Pear Plum.

Janet Ahlberg died of breast cancer in 1994, at the age of fifty, having produced many beloved and bestselling books. Her daughter with Allan Ahlberg - Jessica Ahlberg - is also a children's book creator.

Reviews

[Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book may be filled with those corny gags you used to find in the beano but where this wins is in the sheer charm of the illustrations.

[Siskiyou-Suzy · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Old Joke Book is made up of illustrated jokes, most of them extremely corny. Some of the pages take the form of comic strips, but there's a lot of variety in form and a lot of little jokes stuffed in corners. The jokes aren't funny. I mean, humor is subjective, but most of these jokes are just so bad! Of course, nothing else should be expected from a children's joke book I suppose. One joke did make me laugh. But there is a certain charm to the book -- the old-school nature of it.