Following her good-times-for-all, smash-hit Boredom Blasters, Helaine Becker serves up another barrel of laughs in this book for now and future jokesters. Young readers learn how to prepare a comedy routine and how to draw their own comic strips. They discover what separates a good clown from a stupendous one, and how to perform clown routines like juggling and pratfalls. Tasty recipes, hilariously inspired crafts, crazy jokes, fascinating facts, and giggle-inducing activities complement each chapter. Examples include whipping up a batch of Earthworms and Dirt Cups for dinner, creating slapstick sound effects with a pair of vinyl gloves, and livening up a party with a Very Silly Walk-a-Thon. Claudia Dávila’s whimsical full-color art adds to the fun.
Helaine Becker is the bestselling writer of children's fiction, non-fiction and verse. Her Scholastic chapter book series, the Looney Bay All-Stars, has sold over 170,000 copies to date. She also is a two-time winner of the Silver Birch Award; for Boredom Blasters in 2006, and Secret Agent Y.O.U. in 2008. The Insecto-Files has been shortlisted for 2010.
In addition, she is in high demand as a presenter and performer at schools across North America. She has twice been selected for the Canadian Children's Book Week Cross Country tour, travelling to both Yukon and Nunavut to present to school children. She has been a featured speaker at the Frye Festival in New Brunswick, Aloud International Children's Festival in Ontario, Weaving Words Conference in Alberta, Literacy for Life Conference in Saskatchewan, and the Red Cedar Awards in British Columbia. She was also a featured speaker at the 2009 Orange County Children's Book Festival in Costa Mesa, California.
A New York native, she has lived in Toronto for more than 20 years. She has been on the executive board of CANSCAIP (the Canadian Society of Children's Authors and Illustrators), and is a member of the Writers Union of Canada. She is married with two teenage sons and has the cutest dog in the world, Ella.
