Posted Tuesday September 8th 2009
by Rebecca Wilkie

The funny books we read as children are often the ones we remember best and perhaps that’s why Roald Dahl’s books have endured. I can remember shaking with laughter as a child when I read and re-read Dahl’s account of the great mouse plot in Boy and his Red Riding Hood from Revolting Rhymes, who ‘whips a pistol from her knickers’ to calmly defend herself against the wolf, still raises a smile today!

The shortlists for this year’s Roald Dahl Funny Prize feature books which continue the Dahlian tradition of anarchic humour. Chosen by a panel of judges chaired by poet and former Children’s Laureate, Michael Rosen (whose own collection, Quick Let’s Get Out of Here, used to reduce my class at junior school to bouts of near hysterical giggles) and including comedian Bill Bailey, authors Mini Grey and Louise Rennison and last year’s winner Andy Stanton, the books on the 2009 shortlists are sure to amuse even the most stony-faced reader.

Animals abound in the funniest book for children aged six and under category; there’s the story of a space-bound elephant in the pop-up Elephant Joe is a Spaceman! by David Wojtowycz and a crocodile who loves to show off in Crocodiles Are the Best Animals of All! by Sean Taylor and illustrated Hannah Shaw.

Sam Lloyd’s Mr Pusskins Best in Show is about  a  grumpy  cat, determined to win a best looking pet award and not just an Octopus but a Toffee Choctopus and a Helicopterpus appear in Nick Sharratt’s interactive novelty book Octopus Socktopus .

The Great Dog Bottom Swap by Peter Bently and illustrated by Mei Matsuoka hilariously answers the age old question - why do dogs sniff each other’s bottoms when they meet? 

The Pencil by Allan Ahlberg and illustrated by Bruce Ingman, is a surreal tale about the chaos that ensues when a pencil discovers his own creative powers.

In the the funniest book for children aged seven to fourteen category, there is the first in a new fantastically filthy series from Philip Ardagh - Grubtown Tales: Stinking Rich and Just Plain Stinky; alongside two other chapter books - Hilda Offen’s The Galloping Ghost, in which Josh realizes his poetry tutor is a ghost and Purple Class and the Half-Eaten Sweater by Sean Taylor, which is a collection of short stories set in a primary school. A school story for older children is also included with Andy Mulligan’s Ribblestrop, a madcap book about a boarding school whose motto is ‘Life is Dangerous’.

Little Britain comedian David Walliams’ debut children’s novel, The Boy in the Dress, makes the list; it’s both funny and touching and even has illustrations from famous Dahl collaborator Quentin Blake. Finally, former Children’s Laureate Anne Fine, no stranger to prize nominations, appears with Eating Things on Sticks, which captures the humour and misunderstandings of family life.

Have you read any of the Funny Prize shortlist? If so, we’d love to hear your thoughts. The winners are announced on 10 November.