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5 Funny Coming-of-Age Stories For Young Readers Who Love to Laugh
Hearing my children laugh is the best sound in the world, and when they laugh while reading a story, it’s even more gratifying. Here are 5 hilarious coming-of-age stories for readers ages 6-12 certified to make them crack up. And maybe parents, too.
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El Deafo, by Cece Bell
Here’s a clever graphic novel with a heroic protagonist, and the whole story is autobiographical. Cece Bell re-imagines her childhood self as a bunny who loses her hearing from spinal meningitis. When Cece was four years old she became deaf, and her doctor gave her a Phonic Ear to help her hear.
When it was time to go to school and make friends, she had to wear a huge hearing aid strapped to her chest. That required superpowers (and a sense of humor). This is how Cece’s new secret identity is born: El Deafo, who can hear everything including a teacher’s bathroom visits and what’s said in the teacher lounge. The pop culture references, from Van Halen to Monty Python, are sure to make parent readers laugh.
Smile, by Raina Telgemeier
Another graphic memoir based on the author’s childhood! This is one I see on almost every kid’s bookshelf in the Bay Area, where Raina Telgemeier lives.
Raina just wants to be a normal sixth grader, but one night after Girl Scouts she trips and falls, and hurts her two front teeth. This might not sound funny, but when you see drawings of embarrassing headgear and a retainer with fake teeth attached…. you get to laugh along with her. I love how the fun illustrations alongside this real story about self-acceptance make this novel so meaningful.
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Lola Levine Is Not Mean!, by Monica Brown
On any given afternoon, you’ll find Lola Levine writing in her diario, taking a sip of her mom’s cafe con leche, or eating her dad’s matzo ball soup. As the mother of a biracial Jewish daughter, I love the diversity in this story!
Second-grader Lola Levine is half-Peruvian and half-Jewish, and she’s very clever. One afternoon when she’s playing goalie for her soccer team, the Orange Smoothies. Lola defends an incoming ball by coming out of her box and accidentally fouls a classmate. That’s how Lola gets the rhyming nickname Lola Levin is Mean…which she’s so NOT!
Lola’s voice will make readers chuckle. For example, because her mom says that “hate” is a strong word and she’d doesn’t want her daughter didn’t use it, Lola thinks up a sensible substitute: “Cauliflower is another food that I dislike very much.” And please don’t call her “Dolores,” the longer form of her name. In Spanish, it translates to “pain.”
Funny Girl, edited by Betsy Bird
For older readers who love nonfiction, these 28 short stories, personal memoirs and comics that will tickle your funny bone. Funny Girl is so much than an anthology, it’s a movement. After all, girls are funny and everyone should realize this.
This collection includes fun stories by some of the writers above, such as Raina Telgemeier, Cece Bell, and Jennifer Holm. Thank you to Libba Bray for this “Public Service Announcement About Your Period” from a witty 12-year-old girl who objects to the secrecy about this issue. And to Mitali Perkins for her Brown Girl Pop Quiz: All of the Above: “Why is Indian food so spicy?… Spicy food relaxes the body. Who needs to take a smartphone into the bathroom for an hour?”
This collection will make readers giggle, think, and feel empowered.
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Baby Mouse, by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm
If your kids haven’t discovered the Baby Mouse graphic novel series, you’re in for a treat. I used to catch my eight-year-old laughing to herself in bed over these stories.
This sweet sassy mouse makes her first appearance in Queen of the World! (Babymouse #1). She’s a mouse, but she struggles with the same things most kids do, like homework, a messy locker, bullies at school. Oh, and her whiskers which are ALWAYS a mess! But watch out world, this mouse plans to become Queen of the World! First goal? To get invited she to Felicia Furrypaws’s exclusive slumber party.
What funny coming-of-age stories does your young reader adore?