National Geographic Kids Just Joking: 300 Hilarious Jokes, Tricky Tongue Twisters, and Ridiculous Riddles

My son loves these books. We started reading National Geographic Kids books when he was about six (he's nine now) and I can honestly say that these books have been instrumental in teaching him to read. One weekend, the child actually read a 300 pg. book (one from the Weird, But True Series) to my husband and I over the course of two days - 50 pg.s three times a day until he'd finished. I mention this because last year my son was sent to a reading specialist because his teacher was concerned that he was reading below his age-level. Although I was happy for him to receive the extra attention from the specialist, I always doubted that he had any real problems reading because he read the Nat'l Geo books to us constantly. Thankfully, I was right. He no longer sees the reading specialist, reads above his grade-level, and even reads out-loud to his classmates at lunchtime.Why is this so important? Because kids are often labeled as poor readers when it's not that they can't read, but rather that they simply aren't interested in what they are being given to read. My teen-age step-daughter grew up thinking that she was a poor reader, too. That all changed when I gave her the Twilight Series. She read the last book, "Breaking Dawn," (756 pages) in less than 48 hours!There are several elements that make the Nat'l Geo series so appealing, particularly to elementary aged boys. The layouts are very simple, not cluttered. Each joke (or fact in the Weird, But True Series) is only one or two sentences long. The font is much larger than what you would find in a typical chapter book designed for this age group. And the visual images are excellent - exciting, funny, interesting - they immediately draw the reader in, curious to find out more.The Just Joking Series is one of my son's favorites. We'd previously purchased the first book in the series and my husband and I had each spent several evenings with my son taking turns with him reading the jokes aloud and cracking each other up. We purchased this box set in September for his birthday and are almost through the other two books, as well. We've also pre-ordered "Just Joking #4."The jokes in these books are mostly very funny, very clean, and only occasionally so dumb that they merit the buzzer sound (think "America's Got Talent"). The joke books also include several tongue twisters. Truthfully, our son doesn't really care for these, but the jokes more than make up for this.Of all the joke books we've got, these are our favorites. As a parent, teacher, library volunteer, and chairperson of my son's Scholastic Book Fairs, this is a set I will definitely be recommending for children (especially boys) from pre-K through lower elementary!

Our 8 year old LOVES this book! It was so funny at christmas she asked us jokes and tongue twisters all day long

well liked by 10 year old - fun!

Good pictures, as with most of Nat Geo's books. Jokes were pretty good, I was entertained as an adult and the 8 year old I got the book for like them as well... There are a lot of knock knock jokes, some of them seemed a little repetitive but overall a good book for the price. It is good for boys and girls and a better gift than most of the junk out there.

I first ran across a short version of the National Geographic joke books at a dollar store when our granddaughter was 4 years old. We looked at the pictures and did the tongue twisters and had lots of laughs. Later we read her the riddles and jokes, and it helped her understand how word play works. Still fun. Now she’s 8 years old and reads the same jokes to Us (while we pretend it’s torture). Funny thing is I thought she understood all of the riddles by now, but recently she dragged that little book out, read a riddle to me, then read the answer, laughed and said, “Oh, I get it now!” She still loves puns and riddles, so I bought this book and the side splitter joke book so we can torture each other some more, lol!

I ordered this book for my daughter for Christmas. She is going to love it! National Geographic always comes through on amazing graphics.

My little girl is from Thailand, in the USA for 3 years now. She's 7 and has learned English amazingly well. The play on words in this book takes that to a new level as she thinks through the punch lines to these jokes. She has had some huge belly laughs with this book. One of the best $5 I've ever spent on Amazon! An excellent book to help your kid to that next level with reading. 100% recommend this!

My son is 6 years old and just learned to read in kindergarten. He is able to read and tell us 90% of the jokes in this book. Only a few harder words trip him up but if your child loves telling jokes and is reading at least on a kindergarten level they will love this! Pictures are cute too. He has had this for two full months and he still pulls it out every day to tell us a joke. Great purchase! He even uses it to entertain company LOL!