Customer Reviews

The Silly Book

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

With such diverse opinions about this book, I thought I'd excerpt a few representative lines to give you an opportunity to preview it. Author/illustrator Stoo Hample originally put out "The Silly Book" in 1961; Candlewick published this edition in 2004. Not having seen the original, it's difficult to say how the two compare. In general, I think that nostalgia and memory make the booklover's heart grow fonder. However, Candlework's typical high production values (thick glossy paper, quality book materials) may actually work against the frivolity of the book; a cheaper 'zine (slang for low-tech magazine) format may have been more consonant with the throwaway silly humor. Here's an example:

SILLY STORY
I want to see my mommy a minute,
My mimmy a monnit. My mommy a minnit.
I want to see my mommy a minnit.
To sing her a little song,

To sing her a little.
To ling her a sittle,
To sit her a lingle long.
(I think my mommy will like it
Because it's a very short long.)

Nothing extraordinarily clever here--you're not gonna get something akin to the "Mozart effect" (in which parents play Mozart for their infants, hoping to stimulate their brains). No, when Hample titled this "The Silly Book." he meant it.

Here are some examples. Note how some of these riddles and word plays are now very formulaic for adults. The example immediately following is the kind of riddle that helped build one adult comedian's (G.C.) reputation.

SILLY QUESTION
If people get chicken pox, What do chickens get? SILLY ANSWER People pox.
ANOTHER SILLY QUESTION
If Mommy eats a Popsicle, What does Daddy eat? ANOTHER SILLY
ANSWER A Momsicle!

A few other examples follow:

SILLY MILLIE
"I am silly,/You are silly, All of us are silly,/ Willy./ All of us but cousin/ Millie./ She's upside down." (The poem is next to a picture of Millie, upside down, holding a flower labeled, "Tillie.")

SILLY RECIPE
"Cook three pieces of/spaghetti in a pan of/water for two years.
Add one teaspoonful/ of chocolate syrup/ and mix well.
Spread on bread/ and freeze.
Feed to teddy bear."

More than most books, this one depends on the interaction between the reader and the audience. When read with the right expression and tone to a receptive, language/sound fascinated boy or girl, this may be great fun and build future warm memories. Read cold off the page, many of the riddles, poems, and other prose come off as familiar word play. (By the way, the accompanying illustrations are generally simple, although sometimes drawn with clever dialogue or captions). Perhaps in 1961 this book was somewhat ahead of its time; the utter nonsense of these books may have been a refreshing change for some. Soupy Sales, a somewhat comparable visual and linguistic entertainer, was still a few years away from TV. Soupy, however, has a few more layers of meaning--there's a sly wink at the adults not seen here-this book centers around little kids only. "The Silly Book" will not ruin your audience's language; instead, it has the potential to increase their enjoyment of language, and, most importantly, to build lasting memories of reading and silly time. Given that context, I can recommend this book, especially for those adults who can add the enthusiasm that comes from finding an old favorite ready for a new generation.

Woo hoo! What a classic. The Silly Book is good clean fun, and of course very silly. So... where's the old Silly Record? Or will it be reissued as a Silly CD?

I read this book as a kid and have been looking for it ever since, so I'm delighted it's back! As I look back on it, I realize it had a huge impact on shaping my sense of humor. Stoo was a friend of my dad's and he came to our house a couple times when I was a kid, and I remember him as being warm and funny.

This was my brother's and my favorite book growing up. We laughed and shared endless inside jokes quoting it to each other. After college, I snatched our tattered copy from our parents' home, but a few years later my brother asked me for it. How could I refuse him, since he asks for so little? Hence my children, who arrived after the book departed, did not have this book read to them during the crucial 4- to 8-year-old age range.

Knowing time was running out, a few years ago I started searching for a copy from online used bookstores, but to no avail. As soon as I heard it was re-printed, I bought a copy and read it to my kids. Alas, they didn't get it. You see, they are now 14, 13, and 11, and in their mind far too old for silliness. The 11-year-old caught a few of the jokes, but it won't be a favorite.

The lesson: Buy a copy early in your children's lives. There's nothing else out there like The Silly Book.

My children, one of whom wrote a previous review, loved this book. After an exhaustive search, I was able to replace their long-lost copy. Then my family was delighted to hear a new edition was due in August of 2004 and could be passed to the next generation. I think the humor is not in "jokes" but in the overall material which provides an opportunity to read and sing with creativity and originality and differently each time parent and child(ren) sit together with the book. It's all in the presentation Silly!

My sister and I grew up with my 3 cousins reading this book and as adults, fought over the one copy that was left (they won). We would hoot and howl over this book. It's ridiculous and genius at the same time!! Absolutely unique. Every kid will love this book. It's about time they re-issued this book.

What a joy to see your children reading a book over and over and laughing hysterically, then repeating phrases and poems from THE SILLY BOOK to their friends and cousins and giggling like all getout. This is a truly funny book, with imaginative drawings that enhance the marvelously original text. Amazingly, this book magically replaces anger or boredom or glumness in my kids with instant happiness. I wish every child in the world could have a copy of THE SILLY BOOK, then maybe laughter would prevail in place of the darker emotions. God bless THE SILLY BOOK!

I loved this book when I was a kid. I remember my dad laughing so hard when he read it to me he couldn't go on. I still have my old copy.

I was astounded to read the negative reviews of The Silly Book, obviously by the humor-challenged among us--and you know who you are. ;) Why did Chicken-Face cross the--oh, never mind.

I got the Silly Book when I was 4 and it quickly became my favorite book. In fact, it is family lore that I drove my parents mad reciting "I want to see my Mommy a minute" on long cross-country car trips. I was able to find another used copy of the first edition several years ago and introduced the book to my kids, both of whom immediately fell in love with it. For the previous reviewer who claims the book promotes "speaking baby talk," I can only say that that person must have no experience with kids and how they play with language or their own child is frightfully dull, LOL. My kids delight in the word games and absolute craziness of some of the stories.

I was very excited to get an email last year from Candlewick, who had seen my posts about the book on an internet site. They told me about their new edition, but I didn't order it until just last week. It came today, and my kids (now 7 and 9 and both speaking rather well, thank you, despite their early exposure to the linguistic anarchy of Stoo Hample) have not put it down all afternoon. The new edition it should be noted is about twice as large as the original, has some new and/or revised illustrations (Chicken-Face is wearing a mask--NOOOOOO!), as well as a couple of new poems.

You have to be seriously humorless not to enjoy this great trip through the absurd.

I've never written a review before, but was so appalled that anyone wouldn't love this book, I decided to go ahead and add my two cents. My entire family loved this book when I was little. We still quote this book to this day, and have been anxiously waiting for its re-release. Now my nieces and nephew (who are all VERY silly) can have fun with it. I also already have a copy for my newborn twin daughters, who I can only hope end up being as silly as we were, and still are. True this is not Shakespeare. I do believe that most of today's "modern" parents need to lighten up and enjoy the silly things in life. This is just the book to do it.