Guys Read: Funny Business

Guys Read: Funny Business, put together by Jon Scieszka, is a collection of funny short stories for 9 year olds from a whole gang of different writers.

What happens

Short stories are brilliant for a reader who likes to finish something in one go. And because the stories come from different authors, if one isn't quite your reader's thing, the next will be something completely different.

It opens with Best of Friends by Mac Barnett. Dean is in fourth grade and has never had much time for Ernest, who wears a cardigan, tells terrible horse jokes and once drew something rude on Dean's art project. Then Ernest announces he's won a trip to the chocolate milk factory from the TV advert, and he's allowed to bring his best friend. Suddenly the whole class wants to be Ernest's best friend.

Adam Rex's story Will is set in a school where nearly every kid has turned out to be magical. One has gone off to wizard school and one is the son of Thor. It's Will's birthday and he still has no powers at all, which is exactly when a supervillain in a robot suit smashes through the classroom wall. He's called Cyberstructo (which tells you most of what you need to know).

Then Eoin Colfer writes about growing up with four brothers, including Donal, the young criminal mastermind of the family. The story's called Artemis Begins, so fans of Artemis Fowl will soon see where this is going.

They're American stories, so it's fourth grade, recess and an awful lot of chocolate milk. The humour is cheeky rather than rude. There's a bit of playground punching, Will's birthday gets called "crappy", and the villain makes some very cartoonish threats. None of it is meant to be taken seriously.

It's a great one for dipping into, or for reading a story aloud at bedtime. Who doesn't love a book you can finish a chunk of in ten minutes?

What to read next

If they like the mix, Other Worlds is another Guys Read collection, this time packed with science fiction and fantasy, and it opens with a Percy Jackson adventure.