MY FIRST JUSTIN’S JOKES
by Justin Fletcher
Published 3 May 2012 by Faber & Faber
£4.99 paperback original, ebook £1.99
My three year old has recently started telling jokes. Well, I say jokes . .
Why did the pig go on the pig? . . Because it was pig, pig, snort, snort
and
knock knock,
who’s there?
Tata, Tata
Tata who?
Tata jumping on a trampoline
at which point he and his fellow three year-olds collapse into fits of giggles, until they have recovered adequately to tell another, almost identical joke of similarly dubious quality.
So when I was asked to review Cbeebies’ legend Justin Fletcher’s new joke book , I was looking forward to discover how the competition might measure up against the comedy benchmark set by my youngest son.
I had expected to receive a standard sized book, with lists of jokes in black print on low grade paper, so when my review copy arrived I was pleasantly surprised to see a brightly coloured, high quality paperback. While the big cover picture of Justin, surrounded by cartoon animals makes it instantly recognisable and appealing to young children, it certainly wasn’t off-putting to my eight year old ‘tester’ who wasted no time in nabbing it and reading it from cover to cover before I got a look in.
Inside the book the jokes have been attractively laid out, just two or three to a page, in large type. Bright illustrations engaged my three year old’s interest and also served as clues to the punchline. Many were too complex for him, but he already has a keen sense of lavatorial humour
What type of dog do you find in a toilet?
A poo-dle
and once the shrieks of laughter had died down,
You said “poo” Mummy
He also enjoyed jokes he could work out with the help of a picture cue
What’s the hottest day of the week?
Sun . . .DAY!
My aforementioned eight year old also enjoyed the book, mainly on a different level.
Why do witches wear name badges?
So they can tell which witch is which.
This kind of play on words is a helpful tool to reinforce the kinds of spellings which children often struggle with.
And not forgetting my own personal favourite told to me by my 6 year old
Why did the toilet paper roll down the hill?
To get to the bottom
still makes me smile!
I would happily recommend this book as it is produced to a high standard, is attractively laid out and was certainly a hit with my test audience of 3+ to 8 year old boys. Apologies to my three year old, but Justin’s book definitely has the comedy edge.
Practically Perfect Mums has FIVE copies of this book to give away so if you would like to enter, please head over to our competition page for more details. (update – link removed as competition closed)
A preview copy of the book was received for the purpose of the review.
No payment was received for writing this review.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Justin Fletcher has won two Best Children’s Television Presenter BAFTAs, in 2008 and 2010, and was awarded an MBE for his services to Children’s television and the charity sector. Justin Fletcher is the star of CBeebies’ award-winning Something Special and Gigglebiz. He is a headlining act at Camp Bestival and Latitude to huge audiences of 20, 000 – 30,000. His new series, Justin’s House, was broadcast in October 2011 alongside his first book for children, Justin’s Jokes. My First Justin’s Jokes is his second book.
