View source for Richard Scarry's Funniest Storybook Ever by Richard Scarry

{{infobox2
|title=Richard Scarry's Funniest Storybook Ever
|author=Richard Scarry
|reviewer=Luci Davin
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Eleven stories about the people of Busytown - the real charm is in the pictures.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=48
|publisher=Harper Collins Children's Books
|date=March 2011
|isbn=978-0007413553
|website=
|video=
|aznuk=0007413556
|aznus=0007413556
|cover=0007413556
}}

This new edition of Richard Scarry's Funniest Storybook Ever includes eleven
stories about the inhabitants of Busytown.  These "people" are drawn as various animals, and many of them appear in several stories. The local policeman, Sergeant Murphy is a dog wearing a helmet, riding round on a motorbike, and he is kept busy investigating everything from theft to talking bread. He is often assisted by his friends Huckle (a cat) and Lowly (a worm).

A lot of adults including me will feel some nostalgia over Richard Scarry's
name. I don't remember the book I had, or the stories; my memory is of
enjoying the pictures of all these anthromorphic animals engaged in all
sorts of activities. 

The layout of this book, like others by Richard Scarry, is unusual compared
to other picture books for children - rather than having a picture and a few
lines of text per page, each page has 3-5 pictures, each accompanied by a
short paragraph. This busy style is quite exciting for small children to
look at. 

I find the stories in this book a bit of a chore to read aloud, and a little
silly, although my 4 year old son enjoys them. I think he finds them more
amusing than I do. The pictures are much more fun to look and giggle at and
chat about.

Scarry's books are a bit old fashioned, often showing things which have
changed a lot. In "The Talking Bread", Humperdink uses a very old fashioned
dial phone to call the police. It should also be pointed out that the main
active characters in the stories are all male - female characters tend to be
housewives and firmly in the background.

Despite these reservations, I think that Richard Scarry's Funniest Storybook
Ever is worth buying for children of the right age - about 6. It would be a
good book for primary school children who are just beginning to read
themselves for pleasure, but perhaps still like being read to as well. 

Thank you very much to Harper Collins for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

We have two non-fiction books by Richard Scarry that Danny really enjoys -
one of them is [[What Do People Do All Day? by Richard Scarry|What Do People Do All Day?]] - with chapters showing people at work. The Bookbag also enjoyed Richard Scarry's [[Best Bedtime Stories Ever by Richard Scarry|Best Bedtime Stories Ever]]. 

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