Longing For A Hearty Laugh? LOL With These Hilarious Stories Around Kids And Books

The WHYs That Never Stop

My son asks an average of about 563,894 questions a day. Some are funny ("Amma, I don't want to sleep now. I want to sleep la-a-a-ter. Is it la-a-a-ter now?") Others are plain frustrating ("Amma, I threw that toy on the floor. Amma, WHY did I throw that toy on the floor? Amma, WHYY did I throw it on the floor? Amma.")

So, one day, when he was three years old, I had a brainwave. I brought out a family heirloom, the first of the series of books that my brother and I grew up reading—Tell Me Why. My son might be too young to understand most of it, but surely there would be a thing or two I could teach him, I thought.

So, I showed it to him and told him the book had answers to all his WHY questions. I could see that his curiosity was piqued. I gave myself a mental pat on the back for coming up with the idea all by myself.

As it turned out, two hours later, I was still answering questions. About the cover.

"Amma, why is the book dusty?"

"Amma, why is there a big blue rectangle on the book?"

"Amma, was your brother a little careless? Is that why the book tore?"

"Amma, what did Grandpa say when your brother was careless with the book?"

"Amma, why is the WHY big?"

"Amma, why is the WHY blue?"

"Amma, if I drop the book on my foot, will my foot hurt?"

"Amma, can I spin the book?"

My son is now four years old and I still haven't turned to page 1.

 Nivedita

SNIP, SNIP, SNIP!

Raising my ultra-naughty twin boys was no mean task. One evening, our house was quiet. This was unusual because there was peace in the house only when my five-year-old twins slept. But it was late evening when they were usually wide awake. I went to check on them. I found both my sons sitting on the floor, each holding a book I had borrowed from the British Council Library. One of the boys was holding a pair of scissors. When he saw me, he declared matter-of-factly, "I'm going to cut these pictures." I wanted to scare my sons so that they would never dare to do such a thing in the future. So, I told them, "Do you know what the library will do? They'll complain to your teacher." My son was quick to respond, "You said these are British library books. My teacher told me that the British took away many things from here. So, I can also take these from them." Thank god, I caught them before the act!

 Latha

Grrroooom!

My daughter loves the Gajapati Kulapati books and has read them about 100 times. In one of the books, the cute elephant has a stomach ache, then farts, and after the big Grrroooom, becomes alright! My daughter learned the meaning of fart for the first time from the book when she was around 18 months old. Around that time, we had gone to a get-together and one uncle there farted and probably hoped that no one heard it. But many of us did, including my daughter, and she promptly declared loudly "FART." That uncle was a good sport, he grinned sheepishly and laughed along! I didn't know where to go hide my face.

 Divya

Dinner Date

There's a book by Julia Donaldson called Gruffalo that my tot loves. It is about a little mouse that outsmarts its predators. The predators pretend to invite the little mouse to eat with them and make plans to capture and eat him. However, the witty mouse coolly responds with thanks, claiming he is off to have dinner with his friend, the beastly Gruffalo. The predators, scared of the Gruffalo eating them up, scurry away. The story goes on to tell how the little mouse finally outsmarts the Gruffalo himself. My son and I have read this book over and over again. Once when I asked him to come to eat lunch, and he didn't want to, he was alec-smarty and told me, "Thanks mum, but no, I'm going to have lunch with the Gruffalo."

 Meghna