From: lhendr at unm.edu <lhendr>
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 10:48:53 -0600 (MDT)

The message I thought I had sent a week or so ago must have gone the route to nowhere. I don't think anyone has mentioned the Frances Parry Heide Treehorn books. I remember reading The Shrinking of Treehorn straight through with my children and all of us laughing. Is there some humor in children's books that is funnier to adults than to children? The humor in Treehorn is dark and satirical, the child ignored by the adults, which also makes it funny-sad because it is so true. I've also thought of the Shirley Hughes Alfie books, which as an adult I find funny, but I think my children took seriously when Alfie locks himself into the house and when David has the whole household looking for his "dog" at bedtime. Is this similar to the humor in Winnie the Pooh, where adults are laughing, or at least smiling, at humor that is over the characters' heads and perhaps over the heads of the child reader. When adults laugh do the children begin to find the books funny, too?

Linnea Hendrickson lhendr at unm.edu
Received on Wed 13 May 1998 11:48:53 AM CDT