The Giant Print Library

Funny stories for younger readers Updated: November 2012

Any UK member of our library service may borrow up to a maximum of 6 books per service for a 3 month loan period.

Most of the books have been produced by the National Blind Children's Society and are in 24 point type with identical covers to the ordinary print versions of the books.

Please be aware that due to their size, many of the books are split into two or

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more volumes, and these will have the same covers.

For details on borrowing any of the titles listed or for further information regarding the Giant Print collection please contact Liz Farrell or Hazel Sharrock, Children's Librarians at RNIB National Library Service on 0161 429 1975.

Funny Stories

Ahlberg, Allan.The man who wore all his clothes. 2002. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.One morning Mr Gaskitt puts on all his clothes, Mrs Gaskitt picks up a robber in her taxi, Gus and Gloria have trouble with a teacher. Horace the cat goes to a friend's house to watch TV

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and the car radio gets things wrong. But then what happens? And why does Mr. Gaskitt wear all his clothes?

Andreae, Giles.Billy Bonkers. 2006. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.Mad stuff happens with Billy Bonkers. Life is never boring with Billy - it's Bonkers. Three hilarious stories in one.

Beano Annual 2008. Suggested reading age 7+. 2v.Popular comic fun.

Blume, Judy.Freckle juice. 1971. Suggested reading age 7+.Andrew decides that if he were covered in freckles like his classmate, Nicky, no one would notice whether he

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had washed his face or behind his ears.

Brown, Jeff. Flat Stanley. 1964. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.Stanley is just a normal healthy boy, but since a large notice-board fell on him, he's been only half an inch thick. But it's not always easy being different!

Byars, Betsy.The eighteenth emergency. 1991. Suggested reading age 9+. 1v.Benjie, the one they call "mouse", is threatened by the toughest boy in the school, Marv Hammerman. Benjie and friend Ezzie have often worked out solutions to problems, but how are they to deal with the biggest emergency of all?

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Capparucci, Dinah.Warning! Aliens are invading the school. 2010. Suggested reading age 9+. 1v.Jordan, Ryan and Boy Dave always get blamed for everything. And OK, most of them it is their fault - but this is one time it definitely wasn't! How could they have known that trying to save the world and being accidental reality TV stars would end in disaster?

Dahl, Roald.Esio trot. 1991. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.Mr Hoppy, a retired bachelor, harbours a secret passion for the attractive widow Mrs Silver. She, however, loves another - Alfie, her pet tortoise.

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Dahl, RoaldThe giraffe and the pelly and me. 1985. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.Billy is surprised when a giraffe, a pelican and a monkey move into the queer old wooden house that used to be a sweet shop. The giraffe is concerned because they need work for their Ladderless Window-Cleaning Company.

Dahl, Roald.The Twits. 2001. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.Mr and Mrs Twit are twits. They are also very nasty. So the Muggle-Wump monkeys and the Roly-Poly bird decide to give them the nasty surprise they deserve.

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Dahl, Roald.The vicar of Nibbleswicke. 1992. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.Reverend Lee doesn't realise that his dyslexia is affecting his sermons. His parishioners are at first amused and then shocked by the garbled messages coming from the pulpit. Finally a cure is found. The vicar must walk backwards for the rest of his life.

Fine, Anne. Bill's new frock. 2000. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.When Bill Simpson woke up on Monday morning, he found he was a girl. Forced off to school in a frilly pink dress Bill discovers one of the worst days of his life is about to begin.

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Fine, Anne. How to write really badly. 1996. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.Chester Howard quickly decides he hates his new school. The boy he sits next to, Joe, is the 'Writer from Hell' and when Joe chooses 'How to write neatly' as his project, Chester persuades him to change the title to 'How to write really badly.'

Fine, Anne.Ivan the Terrible. 2007. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.It's Ivan's first day at his new school, and Boris is told to translate for him as Ivan can only speak Russian. After all, St Edmund's is a civilized school! Only problem is, Ivan isn't civilized and Boris realises that he's going to have his work cut out for him.

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Fine, Anne.Madame Doubtfire. 1994. Suggested reading age 11+. 1v.Lydia, Christopher and Natalie, since their parent's divorce, are used to travelling between their volatile mother, Miranda and Daniel their out-of-work actor father. When Miranda advertises for someone to supervise the children, Daniel disguises himself and applies for the job.

Freedman, Claire.Aliens love underpants. 2007. Suggested reading age 0-4. 1v."Aliens love underpants, in every shape and size, But there are no underpants in space, so here's a big surprise..." you'll laugh your pants off!

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Gervais, Ricky.Flanimals. 2004. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.A wonderful collection of spectacularly ugly creatures!

Girling, Brough.Vera Pratt and the Bishop's false teeth. 1987. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.Have you ever met a toothless Bishop who prefers to travel by sidecar? And his chauffeur is Vera Pratt, ace-adventurer and fanatic mechanic. Vera needs all her wits about her when the Bishop becomes a victim of blackmail…

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Gleitzman, Morris.The other facts of life. 1985. Suggested reading age 11+. 1v.Ben is behaving very strangely. He's been shutting himself in the bathroom every day for two weeks. His parents are worried. Is it time they told him about the facts of life? Ben actually has some other questions and he's determined to get answers. And so begins a crusade that's both deadly serious and very, very funny.

Green, Jessica.Diary of a would-be princess: the journal of Jillian James, 5B /2007. Suggested reading age 9+. 1v.All Jillian wants is to be like the princess-y girls who rule her class. What she doesn't want is to hang out with a load of dorky boys. But it's only when her plans go hilariously wrong,

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that things start turning unexpectedly right.

Horowitz, Anthony.Groosham Grange. 1995. Suggested reading age 9+. 1v.David quickly discovers that his new school, Groosham Grange, is a very weird place indeed. New pupils sign their names in blood; the French teacher disappears every full moon and the assistant headmaster keeps something very chilling in his room...and that's just the first year…

Jennings, PaulUnreal! 1994. Suggested reading age 9+.1v.(Unbelievable! by this author is also available.) It's unreal - a sea of flies; a reunion of bones; wonder underpants; cow dung custard. A collection of eight

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quirky, bizarre, and very funny short stories from Paul Jennings.

Johnson, PeteThe bad spy's guide. 2007. Suggested reading age 9+. 1v.Everyone thinks Tasha's a big joke because she is obsessed with spies. But when Henry, the new boy at school accidentally mixes up his notebook with hers, Tasha finds out that he is a teenage spy. A funny thriller.

Jones, Diana Wynne.Archer's Goon. 2000. Suggested reading age 9+. 2v.Fact: A Goon is a being who melts into the foreground and sticks there...When the Goon turns up demanding "Archer's two thousand", life turns upside-down. Howard discovers that the town is run by seven crazy wizards

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(not all of whom live in the present!) and someone is trying to take over the world! Exciting, bizarre and truly hilarious!

King-Smith, Dick.Uncle Bumpo. 1994. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.Penny is thrilled when Uncle Bumpo comes to stay and they get on really well together. That is, until, Penny discovers something awful about Uncle Bumpo - with disastrous results.

Lamb, Kathryn.Honestly Mum. 2004. Suggested reading age 11+. 1v.Amy is an only child leading a quiet and orderly life. But one day, her mum gets hit head on the head by a cricket ball, which makes her ruthlessly honest, speaking her mind at the

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wrong moment, with disastrous effects on Amy's friendships!

Lawrence, Michael. The poltergoose. 2000. Suggested reading age 9+. 1v.Book 1 of the Jiggy McCue series. (Other books in this series are also available). Something's after Jiggy McCue! Something big and angry and invisible, which hisses and flaps and stabs his bum and generally tries to make his life a misery. Where did it come from?

Murphy, Jill.The worst witch. 1978. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.Mildred Hubble was a trainee witch at Miss Cackle's Academy and she was making an awful mess of it. She couldn't even ride a broomstick without crashing it and she was always getting

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her spells wrong. But she managed to get by until she turned Ethel, the teacher's pet, into her deadly enemy...

Nadin, JoannaMy so-called life : the tragically normal diary of Rachel Riley. Suggested reading age 13+. 2v.Rachel Riley is the offspring of a depressingly unbroken home. It is time to change things. Rachel resolves that this year she will become tragic, literary and interesting - and will win the heart of Justin, the lead guitarist from Certain Death, along the way. Laugh-out-loud funny from beginning to end!

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Pilkey, DavThe adventures of Captain Underpants: an epic novel. 2000. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.George and Harold create the greatest super-hero in their school's history and now they're about to bring him to life. Meet Captain Underpants. His identity is so secret, even he doesn't know who he is.

Pratchett, Terry.The amazing Maurice and his educated rodents. 2002. Suggested reading age 9+. 2v.Book 1 of the Discworld (children's) series. (Other books in this series are also available.) Scruffy tomcat Maurice has the perfect fiddle going. He has a stupid-looking kid for a piper and his very own plague of strangely educated rats…

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Rennison, Louise.Angus, thongs and full-frontal snogging : confessions of Georgia Nicolson. 2000. Suggested reading age 13+. 1v.Book 1 of the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson (Other books in this series are also available). Georgia not only has to cope with the hormonal rollercoaster of teenagedom that refuses to stop, but seems to get every situation hopelessly wrong!

Rosen, Michael (Editor).Funny stories. 1991. Suggested reading age 9+. 2v.A selection of humourous stories form around the world by a wide range of authors, chosen by Michael Rosen.

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Rusbridger, Alan.The coldest day in the zoo. 2004. Suggested reading age 7+.Slap bang in the middle of the coldest Friday of the coldest week of the year, the central heating breaks down at Melton Mowbray Zoo. Mr Pickles the head keeper asks all the other keepers to take the animal they are in charge of home for the weekend. The results vary in their success…

Simon, Francesca.Horrid Henry's underpants. 2003. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.(Other books in the Horrid Henry series are also available).In this collection of four new Horrid Henry stories, Henry hits ona brilliant way to write thank you letters, negotiates over vegetables, competes with Perfect Peter over which of them is sickest, and finds

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himself wearing the wrong underpants, with dreadful consequences.

Stanton, Andy.You're a bad man Mr Gum! 2006. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.Mr Gum is a truly nasty old man. He's absolutely grimsters. But there is also a little girl called Polly, an evil butcher, heroes and sweets and stuff, and Jake the dog, who must be saved from terrible, terrible evil.

Storr, Catherine.Clever Polly and the stupid wolf. 1967. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.It's not every little girl who finds a great black wolf at her front door, saying he's going to eat her up. But clever Polly isn't frightened. She has a plan that's bound to foil the stupid wolf!

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Strong, JeremyThe beak speaks. 2010. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.Batpants the orang-utan is completely, wildly hairy. She loves swinging through trees, and apple crumble and roast chicken. But most of all she loves her family, the Loveharts, and all theirmadcap adventures. Mrs Lovehart is a stuntwoman and so the whole family is off to watch her in action in her latest film.

Strong, JeremyThe beak speaks. 2003. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.Mark is concerned that his dad has too much to do since his mum left so he advertises for a girlfriend for his dad and soon his vet's surgery is full of eager women, including the beautiful, but evil, Divine and her ugly henchman, Jaundice…

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Strong, JeremyDinosaur pox. 1999. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.Jodie becomes a dinosaur overnight and is whisked into hospital. Her brother rescues her - but where can she hide? Soon the whole police force is after her.

Strong, JeremyFanny witch and the thunder lizard. 1989. Suggested reading age 5+. 1v.Two books in one volume featuring the lovable Fanny Witch, the village schoolteacher who goes on all sorts of rescue missions.

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Strong, JeremyI'm telling you they're aliens! 2000. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.Rob worries about everything, from being bitten by snakes to dinosaurs waiting round corners. So when the Vorks move in across the road, Rob is convinced that they're aliens and that he has to save the world.

Strong, Jeremy.My brother's famous bottom.2006. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.(Also available: My brother's famous bottom get's pinched).Now that the twins (Cheese and Tomato) have been born, the family needs to earn more money. Dad starts to grow his own vegetables and keep a goat for milking - with disastrous

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results in exploding yoghurt. Then the twins audition for a nappy advert…

Strong, Jeremy.My dad's got an alligator. 2007. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.It's that alligator Dad should never have brought it into the house. Crunchbag has escaped! Soon he's running riot in the bathroom and on the roof and even in the park! But he wouldn't eat poor defenceless Granny would he?

Strong, Jeremy.We want to be on telly. 2010. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.The hilariously funny story of Heathrow (affectionately named after London's airport) whose totally embarrassing parents will do anything to be on TV, even if it involves rice pudding or a

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racing car or a rhinoceros. But in the end it's Heathrow's quick thinkingthat makes the news headlines.

Townsend, Sue.The secret diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4. 1982. Suggested reading age 13+. 2v.Book 1 of the Adrian Mole series (The growing pains of Adrian Mole is also available). Dogged by misfortunes common to anyone above the age of 13, from spots to cracks in his parents' marriage, Adrian's life is brightened by his passion for a 14 year-old feminist called Pandora.

Wilson, AnnaPuppy love. 2008. Suggested reading age 7+. 1v.In my life I have wished a million thousand times for a puppy, so was officially over the moon when I finally

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obtained Parental Consent to get Honey - the most absolutely softest and velvetest Golden Labrador you have ever imagined. Since she moved in we have had some extremely funny adventures while dealing with my weird sister April.

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