When it comes to the early reading set, complicated plots aren’t very important. Pee jokes and boogers? Those are very important. These playfully gross books are infamous for getting young kids interested in reading chapter books. Find out which gross books little kids really love.
Captain Underpants
Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants series features villains with creative names like Professor Poopypants. Kids eat up the puns and “bad” words. Patricia’s son Atticus began enjoying books when he started the series. “He picked out a Captain Underpants book at the book fair and devoured it and all subsequent books he could get his hands on,” she says. “He has since developed a love of reading and his reading skills are wonderful. I know it was because he was able to pick out his own kind of book, potty humor and all.”
The Day My Butt Went Psycho
It takes a strong stomach to deal with the major potty humor in Andy Griffiths’ series about butts that detach from bodies and run wild. If you have a child around 8 years old and you can deal with an overdose of fart jokes, The Day My Butt Went Psycho is worth checking into. It’s practically a scientific fact that kids will jump at any opportunity to read and repeat the word “butt.” Despite the ridiculous plot, these are genuine chapter books that, gross or not, count as reading. Cringe and bear it and you might just get your kid reading.
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Bad Kitty
If straight-up potty humor isn’t your style, dial it back down to a decidedly badly behaved cat. The Bad Kitty books by Nick Bruel are a great intro to reading because they start out easy and ramp up to slightly more complicated chapter books with plenty of illustrations. Heartwarming and funny, these stories feature a bad kitty who is ultimately redeemable. Kids love seeing the trouble that the bad kitty gets up to when introduced to family, friends, bath time and a baby. If you have a mischievous early reader, he’ll love identifying with Bad Kitty.
The Giggler Treatment
Roddy Doyle’s The Giggler Treatment mixes potty humor and lessons in parent and child relationships. “It’s centered around gnomes that put dog poo in front of the feet of parents who are unfair to their kids,” says fan of the book Danielle, “but it ends up showing that the parents love their kids and sometimes make mistakes.” In addition to getting kids excited about reading, The Giggler Treatment teaches kids about Irish culture and slang. This is a great transition from early reading potty humor into slightly elevated potty humor.
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