three books that are kind of disgusting—but funny (!) and a little bit complex
/“Peeing on the flowers . . . THAT’S MEAN! ”
I once entertained a group of four teenage boys for close to an hour just by passing out these three books. Unfortunately, it was in a church meeting and the sniggering (and occasional outbursts of laughter) were not entirely appropriate!
That was about 8 years ago—and just a few weekends ago when those same boys, now twenty-somethings, were visiting, they still remembered them and I heard them laughing about them together. I suppose lines like “Sticking your finger in a cat’s behind … that’s disgusting!” just stick in the teenage brain.
Each book takes a theme—disgusting, dangerous or mean—and comes up with a series of one line responses. ‘Hogging the cake … that’s mean!' ‘Swallowing thumbtacks … that’s dangerous!'
And so on—like these:
I love these little books because, while they're funny and quick to read, they still present some complexities. “Driving your Dad’s car … that’s dangerous!’ And yet it’s clearly not dangerous for your Mum. But ‘Smoking cigarettes … that’s dangerous!’ applies to everyone. And so on through the other books.
I also love the easy jump off to writing they provide. My children’s school once did a whole day of writing similar books after reading these. Some went with the dangerous, disgusting or mean themes but others chose kind, funny, silly and so on.
They’re just a lot of fun—and somehow it seems that no matter how often they are read there’s still something to tickle the funny bone!
THAT'S DISGUSTING! ... DANGEROUS! ... MEAN!
by Francisco Pittau & Bernadette Gervais - Black Dog & Leventhal, 2011
ages toddler to teen / board books, picture books, funny, imagination
