Funny Fun Picture Books for Ages 3-4

A friend lamented that she hated all the books she was reading to her three-year-old and asked for suggestions. Her son only liked books with plot and a resolution and was not a fan of rhyme or extreme silliness. Knowing this I couldn't recommend Dr. Seuss or the Dinosaur and Shark books my son currently loves, but I could give her some other titles that have been open a lot over this last year. I made her a list: http://www.indiebound.org/user/2768/list/4 Looking at my list I realized that almost all of our favorites had a common theme HUMOR. The following books (taken from that list) are all funny, but the silliness is kept in check by great plots.

Funny Fun Picture Books 

with a Plot

for 3-4 year olds

 

Skippyjon Jones

by Judy Schachner

Skippyjon Jones is a Siamese cat who pretends he is a chihuahua. In his pretend world he has fantastic adventures while singing goofy rhyming songs. True, my friend's son isn't a fan of rhyme, but the plots of these stories are so fun and the character is so mischievous and lovable that I'm pretty sure her son will love the book despite the rhymes. Oscar is certainly a fan. Skippyjon Jones is a series, which means there are multiple adventures to be had for his fans.

Betty Bunny is a goofball, a strong-willed stubborn goofball who in this story decides she loves chocolate cake so much that she is going to marry it. The moral of this particular tale is that you can't stick chocolate cake down your sock. Like Skippyjon Jones, Betty Bunny is a series so that fans can keep the laughter coming.

Author Mo Willems has lots of fans, and Oscar is one of them. This is perhaps our favorite Mo Willems tale. Naked Mole Rat doesn't like being naked and likes to wear clothes, this creates consternation among his peers, but fortunately they realized that if it doesn't hurt anyone, fun is harmless. It's a perfect tale for youngsters who like to dress up and pretend.

The fantastic illustrations in this book have kept Oscar interested since he was about two, but it is only now, when he is four, that he is finally understanding it. The plot of this book is essentially that blue whales are big. They are too big for the classroom, too big for swimming pools, but big enough to move into.

Slowly but surely the chickens discover that the giant chick is not an elephant, an umbrella, or a squirrel, but actually is a chicken. It takes a long time though; chickens aren't very smart. This is a hilarious re-interpretation of Chicken Little that has enough jokes for both the adults and the kids to get a giggle.

This humorous tale of a Bear who has to be convinced to enjoy his birthday is unbelievably sweet. I'm sure we all wish we had a friend like mouse.