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The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh by Helen Rutter

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 1 Apr 2021

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Amazon
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A laugh-out-loud, against-all-odds triumph of a story.

Billy Plimpton is an eleven-year-old boy with a big dream. He wants to be a stand-up comedian when he grows up, delivering pinpoint punch-lines and having audiences hang on his every hilarious word. Surely an impossible ambition for a boy with a stammer. How will he find his voice, if his voice won’t let him speak?

The idea for this story came from Helen Rutter’s son, who has a stammer: she wanted to write the book that he would love to read, starring a child like him.

You may also be interested in this recent picture book about a boy with a stammer: I Talk Like A River an ACHUKA Book of the Day in January 2021.

Chocolate Milk, X-Ray Specs & Me! by Bethany Walker ill. Jack Noel

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 28 Jan 2021

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In this hilarious, fantastic debut by Bethany Walker. 10-year-old Freddy Spicer writes letters to his parents – who he believes are working at a Brussels-sprouts farm in Outer Castonga, with no internet or phone access. In fact, Freddy’s parents are secret agents out of the country on a highly classified mission – but Freddy has NO IDEA! Throw in: Grandad’s X-Ray specs; A laser blaster that accidentally destroys the shed; A strange new neighbour flirting with grandad; and Suspicious goings-on at school . . . Laugh-out-loud, high energy, fully illustrated fun for young readers!

Read an interview with the author on the Scholastic website.

Freddy vs School – The Awesome Robot Chronicles 1 by Neill Cameron

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 21 Jan 2o21

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A fully illustrated novel from comics creator Neill Cameron – the first title in a new series from David Fickling Books.

POW! PEW! FWOOSH! Meet Freddy – the most super-amazing superhero robot EVER. His unbelievably Amazing Robotic Abilities are mind-blowingly cool. But it turns out that teachers get really angry when you use your rocket boosters in class. Which is rather a problem for Freddy…

Adored comics creator Neill Cameron has written and illustrated a hilarious, heartfelt novel, with an unforgettable protagonist. Freddy vs School is guaranteed to make readers of all ages laugh out loud, while also providing an insightful look at diversity and celebrating children who are different. Fully integrated illustrations make the book perfect for more reluctant readers. This is the story of one superhero robot’s quest to stay in school, save his friends from disaster, and – hardest of all – stay true to himself.

See also:
How To Make Awesome Comics
Tamsin And The Dark

Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neillcameron/


 

Lollies Award Winners

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Best Laugh Out Loud Picture Book

Mr Bunny’s Chocolate Factory by Elys Dolan 

Mr Bunny's Chocolate Factory book cover
 
 

Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 6-8s

The Big, Fat, Totally Bonkers Diary of Pig by Emer Stamp 

The Big, Fat, Totally Bonkers Diary of Pig book cover
 
 

Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 9-13s

Tom Gates: Epic Adventure (Kind Of) by Liz Pichon 

Tom Gates: Epic Adventure (Kind Of) book cover
 

Lollies Award Shortlist

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The shortlist for the 2018 Laugh Out Loud Awards (The Lollies) -a set of awards, now in its third year, created by Scholastic UK, to celebrate the funniest children’s books – was announced today.
 
The Lollies are awarded in three categories:
Best Laugh Out Loud Picture Book
Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 6-8 year olds
Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 9-13 year olds.
 
The shortlisted books in each category are as follows: 
 
Best Laugh Out Loud Picture Book
  • Mr Bunny’s Chocolate Factory by Elys Dolan (OUP)
  • The Squirrels Who Squabbled by Rachel Bright and Jim Field (Hachette)
  • Oi Cat! by Kes Gray and Jim Field (Hachette)
  • I Can Only Draw Worms by Will Mabbitt (PRH)
 
Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 6-8 year olds 
  • Barry Loser and the Birthday Billions by Jim Smith (Egmont)
  • The Big, Fat, Totally Bonkers Diary of Pig by Emer Stamp (Scholastic)
  • There’s a Werewolf in My Tent! by Pamela Butchart and Thomas Flintham (Nosy Crow)
  • Lyttle Lies: The Pudding Problem by Joe Berger (Simon and Schuster)
 
Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 9-13 year olds
  • Tom Gates: Epic Adventure (Kind Of) by Liz Pichon (Scholastic)
  • My Mum’s Growing Down by Laura Dockrill and David Tazzyman (Faber)
  • Uncle Shawn and Bill and the Almost Entirely Unplanned Adventure by A. L. Kennedy and Gemma Correll (Walker)
  • Football Season 2: Where Football Saves the World by Alex Bellos and Ben Lyttleton and Spike Gerrell (Walker)
 
The winning book in each category will be decided solely by children’s votes, cast via the Lollies website, www.scholastic.co.uk/lollies, or via the Lollies PopJam channel.
 
The winning books will be announced in January 2019. 

Lollies [Funny Book] Shortlist 2017

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Picture Book shortlist

The Prince of Pants
The Prince of Pants

 

Eat Your People!
Eat Your People!

 

Danny McGee Drinks the Sea
Danny McGee Drinks the Sea

 

Oi Dog!
Oi Dog!

 

6-8 years shortlist

Future Ratboy and the Invasion of the Nom Noms
Future Ratboy and the Invasion of the Nom Noms

 

Eddy Stone and the Epic Holiday Mash-Up
Eddy Stone and the Epic Holiday Mash-Up

 

Thimble Monkey Superstar
Thimble Monkey Superstar

 

Hamish and the Neverpeople
Hamish and the Neverpeople

 

9-13 years shortlist

AniMalcolm
AniMalcolm

I Don't Like Poetry
I Don’t Like Poetry

The Best Medicine
The Best Medicine

My Gym Teacher is an Alien Overlord
My Gym Teacher is an Alien O

The shortlist was judged by Michael Rosen, children’s novelist, poet and former Children’s Laureate, and a panel, consisting of CBBC presenter Katie Thistleton and The Sunday Times’ Children’s Books Editor, Nicolette Jones.

Voting on the shortlists is now open and closes on 8th December.

Winners will be announced in January 2018.

via Lollies home – Scholastic Shop.

Andy Griffiths: a feature from Australian Broadcasting Corporation

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When Andy Griffiths was teaching high school students in Mildura in the late 1980s, he was struck by how different their experience of reading was from his own. In his youth, books were omnipresent, and were wild, fun places to be—an escape from the adult word of logic.

In my experience as a child I loved being a little bit scared and I loved a good story. There are very few kids that can resist the lure of both of those.
ANDY GRIFFITHS, AUTHOR
But many of the kids at his school had never had a good experience with a book. Books were for nerds, they told him, and to be avoided at all costs.

‘I wanted to turn my class around,’ he tells Sunday Extra.

‘I started writing down silly little stories, provocative stories, about bums growing arms and legs and running away. And they laughed … “This is cool, sir! Can I write a story like that?” I said, “Yeah! And I’ll photocopy them and we’ll put them in a book in the library and look, you’ve just become authors.”

‘They had this sudden organic connection to words and stories and got the idea that you’re actually entertaining an audience.’

A quarter of a century later, Griffiths is one of Australia’s best-known children’s authors, having sold more than five million copies of his books around the world. The stories about bums growing arms and legs turned into a three-part series with increasingly silly titles—The Day My Bum Went Psycho, Zombie Bums from Uranus, and Bumageddon: The Final Pongflict—and even an animated TV series.

via Andy Griffiths: from crafting outlandish lyrics to writing ‘funny stuff for kids’ – Sunday Extra – ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

Michael Rosen heads up new funny books award – Laugh Out Loud prize aka The Lollies :)

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Missed this welcome bit of news while I was away in North Norfolk for a few days – well done Michael Rosen and Scholastic…

guardiansmall

Following the closure of the Roald Dahl funny books prize last month, there’s now a new funny books award on the block – the Laugh Out Loud book prize. It’s a set of awards launched by the publisher Scholastic that recognises the funniest children’s books on the market. The best part? The ultimate winner will be chosen by you!

The prize, also known as the “Lollies”, will be made up of three categories: the Best Laugh Out Loud book for 6–8s, Best Laugh Out Loud book for 9–13s and Best Laugh Out Loud Picture Book. Publishers will submit their favourite funny books to a panel of judges, with poet and former children’s laureate Michael Rosen (who started the Roald Dahl prize) at the head of the panel. The shortlist will be announced in March and that’s when you can vote for your favourite laugh-out-loud read, through the “Lollies” website.

Liz Pichon’s top 10 funny books with pictures
Read more
Rosen says the new prize “will be like a great big signpost saying ‘this way laughs’”, so if you want a say in the silliest reads, this is the perfect chance to get involved.

You can follow the latest updates through the hashtag #lollies, and Scholastic will also organise a series of events in schools across the country, bringing the funniest books to a classroom near you.

via Michael Rosen heads up new funny books award | Children's books | The Guardian.

Philip Ardagh: I can’t help writing funny. It’s true. Funny chose me

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Philip Ardagh interviewed for the Guardian by members of the Imagine children’s festival “ideas cloud”:

guardiansmall

Literature did wonders for my early vocabulary By the age of five, I was writing couplets that featured the word “alas”. I suppose I had a way of speaking that was not always suitable for my age. It made me stand out at school – and not in a good way.

School can be hell I was bullied from the age of seven, and I had to share a classroom with the main bully, my nemesis, for the next nine years. I was made fun of, stabbed with pencils in the back. It was all pretty unpleasant, and made me very anxious, very scared. I didn’t talk about it to anyone, I didn’t ask for help; I just thought that this was what life was. I coped by reading; books were a window to another world.

via Philip Ardagh: I can’t help writing funny. It’s true. Funny chose me | Children’s books | The Guardian.