Fun Books For Kids Who Hate to Read

Any kids who hate to read will be fascinated by these gross books, yucky books and funny books! As a good grandmother, I like to give my grandchildren fun gifts that are also educational. One thing I've learned from my grandchildren is that they are fascinated with creepy, crawly creatures. Most of all, they loved yucky, gross stuff!  How delighted we all were when we discovered these books with gross trivia and yucky facts!

Oh, Yuck! The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty by Joy Masoff (Pre-teens and teens).
Give this to young readers with a taste for gross trivia. This book will appeal to kids just because it’s bound to disgust most adults. My pre-teen and teen grandchildren just loved it. The boys delighted in relating the grossest trivia to their siblings and parents. This book is filled with true facts and explanations of acne, body lint, eye gunk, farts, halitosis, snot, and vomit. Not content with that, Masoff also discusses lice, maggots, rats, slugs, cockroaches, cannibals and mucky medicine. Each topic is factual and short, ranging from a few paragraphs to a few pages but is dealt with in a humorous and appealing manor. And there's a bonus – it's educational!

The School Library Journal says, " this delightful volume will be enoyed by fans of grossness everywhere…”

Oh, Yikes!: History’s Grossest Moments by Joy Masoff.
Joy Masoff makes history appealing to young readers by choosing fascinating subjects like the Abominable Snowman, the Loch Ness Monster, Henry VIII and Attila the Hun. To the delight of young history buffs, she explains how knights in armor went to the bathroom and why sailors liked eating in the dark and discusses disgusting medieval jobs. It's a compilation of funny, gross and weird historical facts.

Grossology by Sylvia Brazel.
This one will appeal to 9 and 10 year old boys. If your ten year old is anything like mine were, they won't be able to resist reading about barf, boogers, farts, body odor, burping, ear wax, bad breath. They'll be learning actual science, too!

The Darwin Awards Next Evolution: Chlorinating the Gene Pool by Wendy Northcutt. This is one that my kids (in their 40's) and husband really enjoyed. Our teenaged grandsons did, too, when they could get it away from their Dads and Grandfather!

Author Wendy Northcutt has compiled a collection of true and hysterically funny stories about people who do incredibly stupid things and effectively take themselves out of the gene pool. From stories about people self-testing a Taser to an account of someone putting a paintball gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger to prove that a paintball gun wouldn’t hurt him, Northcutt offers proof of the survival of the fittest. Stories are short (1 or 2 pages), funny and true. It’s evolution in action in a most entertaining way.

The Darwin Awards 4: Intelligent Design by Wendy Northcutt
Over 1.5 million copies sold, the book is filled with more than 100 new tales of those who have improved our gene pool by removing themselves from it. The Darwin Awards 4 shows the dangers of the missing common sense gene as award winners steer motorcycles with their feet, heat lava lamps on stoves, use liquid soap as brake fluid, and drown themselves in the kitchen sink.

Great Government Goofs: Over 350 Loopy Laws, Hilarious Screw-Ups and Acts-Idents of Congress by Leland Gregory. 372 pages
For those adults interested in politics and history, Leland Gregory has researched and gathered together a collection of hilarious screw-ups the government doesn't want anyone to know about. One example: a federal computer once listed everyone in Hartford, Connecticut, as dead! In another foul-up, 80,000 buttons promoting safety were recalled because they were considered hazardous to children ( the pin was too sharp, and the paint was toxic).

The Sweet Potato Queens' Big-Ass Cookbook (and Financial Planner) by Jill Conner Browne. 288 pages
This one is definitely for the mature woman with sense of humor. Share it with a friend and laugh out loud over her sometimes touching and sometimes bawdy humor. Tucked inbetween her off-the-wall advice and her hilarious observations on life, love and finances are recipes that have never heard the words “low fat”. This is my favorite of the Sweet Potato Queens books. One day I’ll try the recipe for “Pig Candy” – bacon rolled in brown sugar or the “Gooiest Cake in the World." Readers will enjoy her anecdotes, confessions and obsessions with the "cement monkey."

Uncle John's Bathroom Readers are a collection of books edited by the Bathroom Readers Institute. It's hard to pick one from the list as all have enormous appeal. They make a great gift for busy people who like to read a few pages whenever they can find a few moments.

We discovered the Uncle John’s Bathroom Readers about five years ago, and have been fans ever since. Big books stuffed with a collection of incredible facts and fascinating trivia, Bathroom Readers are great gifts for busy people who like to read while waiting for the train or their turn at the doctor’s office. Or even, as the name suggests, keep a copy in the bathroom. The great thing is, you can open one of these books anywhere, read for a few minutes and garner amazing, and useful trivia. Topics range from history and science to pop culture and nature. Besides providing endless entertainment, the topics make great conversation pieces.

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This article Copyright ©2010 by Stephanie Henkel

Many of the books mentioned above as well as thousands of other books are available for the Kindle, Amazon's e-book reader. One of the most asked for gifts this holiday season, the newest Kindle is smaller, lighter (8.5 ounces), and easy to read. WiFi is built into the simple to use Kindle. It holds 3,500 books and has a battery life of over one month. The Kindle's screen can be read in bright sunlight just like a paper book. Check out Amazon for a selection of e-book readers for those special people on your gift list.