That’s Not Funny! by Jeanne Willis, illustrated by Adrian Reynolds

When Hyena put a banana peel in Giraffe’s path, he set off a chain of events that he found extremely funny.  When Giraffe slips on the banana peel, he knocked into a tree.  Which in turn caused a coconut to fall onto Hippo’s head.  Hyena kept laughing and laughing, even as Hippo stumbled around very dizzy and stepped on Snake.  Snake bit Ostrich, Ostrich kicked Rhino, and it went on and on.  Until finally Hyena was laughing so hard that he stepped on his own banana peel, hit the same tree, bonked himself on the head with a coconut and fell into a pile of Elephant’s poo!  Now it was the turn of all of the other animals to laugh at Hyena who doesn’t see what was so funny.  Action-filled and bright-colored, this book has huge child-appeal right down to the stinky ending.

Willis may let the gag run on a little long, but her timing is great.  The book offers a huge dose of humor for the preschool set, designed with plenty of sight gags to keep them eagerly listening.  Reynolds’ illustrations are large, bright and very child-friendly.  His illustrations add to the hilarity of the book nicely.

This book is one that children will enjoy again and again.  It will also make a star of a book for a story time and with so many different animals in it, it will fit easily into different programs.  Appropriate for 3-5 year olds.

Reviewed from copy received from Andersen Press USA.