Winnie's Jokes by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul
| Winnie's Jokes by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: Keith Dudhnath
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| Summary: A collection of cheesy jokes with a witchy theme. There's nothing inherently wrong with it, but you'll have heard most of the jokes before, and there aren't quite enough of them to overwhelm you until you have no choice but to laugh. It's worth a look, but feels a bit like a missed opportunity. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Maybe |
| Pages: 64 | Date: January 2010 |
| Publisher: OUP | |
| ISBN: 978-0192729064 | |
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Who turns off the lights at Halloween? The lights witch. What does an Australian witch ride on? A broomerang. Yep, it's a joke book.
Children's joke books are difficult to judge. It would be unrealistic to expect entirely new material, but there does need to be something to really separate it from the crowd. I'm a sucker for a good joke, and even more of a sucker for a bad joke, but Winnie's Jokes fell flat for me.
Korky Paul's illustrations are always enjoyable, and they set the theme well. The usual mix of jokes have been given a witchy twist to fit in with the other Winnie books. If there was such a thing as Halloween crackers, these are the sorts of jokes you'd get. There are a few groaners, a few you've heard lots of times before, but not enough out and out gigglers to keep you ticking over.
Every child needs a joke book. (Without being too preachy teachy, discovering that you can play with language is a great step on the path to loving language). But still, humour is subjective, and a short joke book like this doesn't give you the opportunity to cover all bases with the sheer weight of numbers. Parents might enjoy not being told a thousand and one terrible jokes, but they just need to get over it.
There's nothing flat out wrong with Winnie's Jokes; it just needs to have slightly more, slightly fresher or slightly better jokes. It's still worth a quick flick through though.
My thanks to the publishers for sending it to Bookbag.
If you're looking for out and out funny books for children, there's plenty to pick from in our Top Ten Books For Children Who Think That Farts Are Funny, in particular The Day My Bum Went Psycho by Andy Griffiths. The Further Adventures of the Queen Mum by Harry Hill is very amusing too.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Winnie's Jokes by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
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