Your sense of humour can be a draw card when you write for children. Read how four expert writers use humour to engage with their readers.

A sense of humour is an invaluable attribute for children’s writers. Not sophisticated adult humour, but the infantile slip-on-a-banana-skin sort. If you can still laugh at the same things you did when you were eight you are in luck. You will have an immediate bond with your readers.

Captain Underpants and Toilet Humour

Almost all children go through a toilet humour stage, and whereas twenty years ago this was seen as an unacceptable subject in children’s books, times have changed and all things gross, revolting, disgusting and just plain hilarious can now find a publisher. Dav Pilkey has made a career (and a fortune) from his Captain Underpants series, which is greatly loved by small boys everywhere.

Many adults, mostly librarians, pooh-pooh toilet humour as catering to the lowest common denominator. But toilet humour is a fact of life, no matter how much grown-ups disapprove of it. It also serves a secondary purpose.

Humour Helps Build Reading Stamina

Children need to build up reading stamina. Reluctant readers battle to get past the first few pages of any book.

But if children feel that the book they are reading is slightly ‘naughty,’ and it appeals to their sense of humour, they will read it from cover to cover. The result will be increased reading ability and stamina, and a love for books.

Children Love Roald Dahl’s Subversive Writing

Roald Dahl was the first to really explore the use of subversion in children's books, though his humour could sometimes go too far and border on cruelty.

Many writers with a similar subversive streak have found that children enjoy seeing rules broken, revenge on baddies taken in clever and funny ways, and the sensible legalistic world of adults turned on its head.

Paul Jennings’ Sense of the Absurd

Paul Jennings is another writer whose sense of humour drives his writing. In his short stories he uses his sense of the absurd to take the reader on a journey from the everyday to the bizarre and fantastical. His humour is intricately linked with his imagination, and the result is always surprising and entertaining.

Betsy Byars Uses Humour to Lighten a Serious Story

Humour can serve a valuable function in more serious writing too. ‘The Midnight Fox’ by Betsy Byars, is an evocative and introspective story about a child captivated by his sightings of a wild fox. Not the sort of theme that would easily lure in many readers.

But Byars uses humour to hook the readers in from the first page. Later, as the story evolves, she cuts back on the humour element and lets the deeper aspects of the story evolve. It is a masterly use of humour to lighten a serious text.

You can read more about Betsy Byars by visiting her website.