I’m a big fan of Funny Girl. It’s not perfect, but I love what it’s trying to do.
The book’s subtitle is Funniest. Stories. Ever. but it’s more than just silly stories. Some of the pieces are just straight-up hilarious for the middle-grade audience (one fictional tale involves hijinks with an older sister’s neon pink bra), and yet this anthology is good for more than just laughs.
Akilah Hughes tells her own story of losing her swimsuit top at a pool party in middle school. She’s still somewhat mortified by the experience (“If you need me, I’ll be lying facedown on a beach towel, trying to forget everything you just read.”), but she definitely recognizes the humor in the debacle. Having been a middle-school girl myself once, I can verify that such resilience is key to surviving those harrowing years.
Mitali Perkins discusses Indian culture and its differences from white, American culture in a list (and who doesn’t love lists?). She uses positive, informative humor as a tool for connection.
Libba Bray not only plays periods for laughs; she also makes them relatable and mundane—and I mean that in the best possible way.
There are also a few comics, which are great additions for all readers but make the book even more attractive to reluctant readers. I especially loved the piece by Christine Mari Inzer, who’s all of 20 years old.
The one piece that wasn’t quite like the others was a kind of manual on how to be funny that came first after the introduction. While it made some very good points—there are good and bad times to crack jokes, and a ten-year-old asking for Sprite neat is very funny indeed—it seemed like a break in the action that maybe could have come later or at the end. After all, when I cracked open the book I wanted to get to those Funniest. Stories. Ever. (Which, to be honest, was a slight overstatement, but we’ll let that one slide.)
Now that Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are some of the biggest names in comedy, this generation of middle-graders should already be fully aware that women can be freakin’ hilarious. But, since that can all too often be forgotten, I hope that anthologies like this one and humorous writers such as those featured in the book (and more—Funny Girl 2, anyone?) remind girls that they can be Funny Girls too.
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