15 Best Books for 5-Year-Olds That Are Actually Funny

Five is an excellent age for funny books.

You're old enough to understand that a pigeon is trying to manipulate you.

Young enough to think underwear is automatically hilarious.

You can follow a story.

You can catch a picture doing something the words didn't tell you.

You can anticipate trouble.

And if an adult is forced to say something ridiculous while reading aloud?

Even better.

If you're new to Book Explorers, I'm Jungle Jimmy the Book Explorer, children's author, dad, and longtime performer for kids. Readit the Book Worm is my childlike sidekick and our unofficial representative for Things Kids Think Are Important.

"Underwear."

Thank you.

"Farts."

We have other articles for that.

"Dinosaurs."

Now we're getting somewhere.

A note on what this list is: these are the best books I'd hand an actual five-year-old, and they're funny, because funny is what I know and funny is what gets a five-year-old to ask for the book again.

Not the books adults think a five-year-old ought to appreciate.

The ones I'd reach for when I want a five-year-old to lean closer, laugh, point, shout something at the page, or ask for it a second time.

Quick Picks

• Best Overall: We Don't Eat Our Classmates
• Best Book for Making the Grown-Up Look Ridiculous: The Book With No Pictures
• Best Classic: The Monster at the End of This Book
• Best Argument With a Book: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
• Best Approaching Disaster: Dragons Love Tacos
• Best Funny-Spooky Book: Creepy Pair of Underwear!
• Best for Kids Who Can't Leave Things Alone: Don't Push the Button!
• Best Bad-Decision Book: No, David!
• Best Shake-the-Book Pick: There's a Monster in Your Book
• Best for a Five-Year-Old Who Likes BIG: The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors
• Best for a Five-Year-Old Starting School: The Pigeon HAS to Go to School!
• Best Art-Table Disaster: Too Much Glue
• Best Chain Reaction: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
• Best Book I Want More Five-Year-Olds to Find: What to Do If an Elephant Stands on Your Foot
• Best for the Kid Who Already Knows the Original: The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!

1. Best Overall: We Don't Eat Our Classmates

By Ryan T. Higgins

Penelope Rex is starting school.

She's nervous.

Will the other kids like her?

Will she make friends?

Then she walks into class and discovers all her classmates are children.

Delicious children.

That's a problem.

Mostly for the children.

Ryan T. Higgins takes something a five-year-old understands immediately, first-day nerves and wanting friends, then adds a dinosaur who keeps eating everybody. Disney's 48-page book runs through Penelope's unfortunate classroom habit and the reversal that finally shows her how her classmates feel.

This is my number one because the funny part and the real part are welded together.

Penelope wants friends.

Penelope keeps eating potential friends.

Those goals are incompatible.

Even a five-year-old can see that.

Especially a five-year-old.

And Higgins doesn't stop the story for a lesson about empathy. Penelope gets an experience that changes her perspective.

That's better.

Why five-year-olds get it: School, dinosaurs, friendship, bad decisions, big expressions, and a problem they understand before Penelope does.

Belly Laugh Scale: 5/5, Laugh-Out-Loud Legend

Read the full We Don't Eat Our Classmates review here.

2. Best Book for Making the Grown-Up Look Ridiculous: The Book With No Pictures

By B.J. Novak

Five-year-old:

"There aren't any pictures."

Adult:

"Correct."

Five-year-old:

"Then why are we reading it?"

Give it a minute.

The trick is that the person reading has to say everything printed on the page.

Everything.

Penguin Random House lists the 48-page book for ages 5 to 8, grades K to 3, with a Lexile of 490L.

Five is almost the perfect age for the trick.

The child understands the rule.

They understand you're trapped by the rule.

Now they're waiting to see what the book makes you do.

Readit?

"BLORK."

Don't start.

Why five-year-olds get it: The adult loses control and the kid knows it.

Belly Laugh Scale: 5/5, Laugh-Out-Loud Legend

Read the full Book With No Pictures review here.

3. Best Classic: The Monster at the End of This Book

By Jon Stone, illustrated by Michael Smollin

Grover has discovered something terrible.

There is a monster at the end of the book.

So whatever you do:

Don't turn the page.

This creates a fascinating situation.

The five-year-old is now personally responsible for Grover's suffering.

And they love him enough to keep doing it.

That's the genius.

Turning the page isn't outside the story.

It is the story.

Grover knows you're doing it.

He objects.

You do it again.

This book has survived for decades because that relationship between character and child still works.

Why five-year-olds get it: They control the page turns, they understand Grover's fear, and they desperately want to know what's waiting at the end.

Belly Laugh Scale: 5/5, Laugh-Out-Loud Legend

Read the full Monster at the End of This Book review here.

4. Best Argument With a Book: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

By Mo Willems

The bus driver has left you in charge.

One job.

Don't let Pigeon drive.

Pigeon has other ideas.

He asks nicely.

He bargains.

He complains.

He makes promises.

He tries every strategy available to a bird who has been denied commercial vehicle access.

The child gets to say no.

Again.

And again.

That's a terrific position for a five-year-old.

Pigeon isn't being funny somewhere inside a story.

He's trying to work you.

Mo Willems makes every change of strategy visible in Pigeon's posture, eye, wing and increasingly desperate attitude.

Why five-year-olds get it: They understand wanting something you're not allowed to have, and this time they get to be the person saying no.

Belly Laugh Scale: 5/5, Laugh-Out-Loud Legend

Read the full Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! review here.

5. Best Approaching Disaster: Dragons Love Tacos

By Adam Rubin, illustrated by Daniel Salmieri

Dragons love tacos.

They do not love spicy salsa.

Remember that.

No spicy salsa.

Very important.

Adam Rubin spends enough time establishing the rule that a five-year-old can own it.

Then trouble starts creeping closer.

Dial published the 40-page book for ages 3 to 7, preschool through grade 2, with a Lexile of AD520L. The AD means adult directed, which is the publisher's way of saying this is a read-aloud first.

Daniel Salmieri's dragons help, because they aren't grand, terrifying fantasy beasts.

They're taco guys.

Until the salsa situation.

This is a book where I'd slow down once the danger becomes visible.

Let the kid catch it.

Five-year-olds love knowing trouble is coming before the character does.

Why five-year-olds get it: Dragons, tacos, one extremely clear rule, and the pleasure of watching that rule go spectacularly wrong.

6. Best Funny-Spooky Book: Creepy Pair of Underwear!

By Aaron Reynolds, illustrated by Peter Brown

Jasper Rabbit wants grown-up underwear.

He gets a glowing green pair.

Excellent.

Until they turn creepy.

Jasper tries getting rid of them.

They come back.

Simon & Schuster lists the 48-page book for ages 4 to 8, with a Lexile of AD470L and an official Fountas & Pinnell level L.

Five is a nice age for this, because the creepy part feels exciting without the story turning genuinely nasty.

And Peter Brown gives the underwear an unmistakable green glow against a mostly black, white and gray world.

A five-year-old can spot them.

There!

Again!

The pictures are helping the child play along.

Also, underwear.

Readit has requested I mention that twice.

"Three times."

Denied.

Why five-year-olds get it: Safe scares, repeated returns, visual spotting, and underwear.

There. Three.

Belly Laugh Scale: 4/5, Big-Time Belly Laughs

Read the full Creepy Pair of Underwear! review here.

7. Best for Kids Who Can't Leave Things Alone: Don't Push the Button!

By Bill Cotter

Larry has a button.

Don't push it.

That's it.

That's the rule.

Now put the book in front of a five-year-old and see how long civilization lasts.

The pleasure isn't simply pushing the printed button.

The book acts as though the kid caused what happens next.

Now Larry needs help.

The child has gone from rule breaker to problem solver.

Which makes the interaction feel like part of a story rather than an activity pasted on top.

Why five-year-olds get it: A forbidden button, direct instructions, immediate consequences, and the feeling that they made something happen.

8. Best Bad-Decision Book: No, David!

By David Shannon

David makes choices.

Most of them produce the same response.

No, David!

A five-year-old understands this world.

Cookies you're not supposed to reach.

Mess.

Bath trouble.

Running around when you should probably have clothes on.

Scholastic lists the 32-page book for ages 4 to 8, PreK through grade 3. The story grew from a little book Shannon himself made as a five-year-old, which feels about right. Five-year-old logic is all over it.

The pictures are big.

The trouble is obvious.

And you barely need to read the words before a kid understands what David has done.

Why five-year-olds get it: David keeps doing things they've either done, considered doing, or would very much like to discuss.

Belly Laugh Scale: 4/5, Big-Time Belly Laughs

Read the full No, David! review here.

9. Best Shake-the-Book Pick: There's a Monster in Your Book

By Tom Fletcher, illustrated by Greg Abbott

There is a monster in your book.

We need him out.

Shake it.

Tilt it.

Wiggle it.

Keep going.

Penguin Random House lists the 32-page interactive read-aloud for ages 3 to 7 with a Lexile of 400L, and it opens the Who's In Your Book? series.

Five-year-olds don't merely listen.

They have a job.

And then the story does something useful with the monster instead of treating him like a wind-up toy.

The child has to consider what happens once they've gotten rid of him.

Maybe getting somebody out isn't the same as solving the problem.

Nice.

Why five-year-olds get it: Monster plus movement plus pretend cause and effect.

10. Best for a Five-Year-Old Who Likes BIG: The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors

By Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Adam Rex

Rock.

Paper.

Scissors.

Not office supplies.

Warriors.

Drew Daywalt takes the familiar hand game and gives its three heroes ridiculously serious origin stories.

The joy is scale.

Everything is treated as monumental.

Every opponent matters.

Every battle is glorious.

Even when the opponent is completely ridiculous.

Adam Rex draws the world with the same commitment, which is essential. Nobody is winking at the joke.

That's why it's funny.

Why five-year-olds get it: They already understand the game, and now the game has heroes, battles, voices and ridiculous opponents.

Belly Laugh Scale: 5/5, Laugh-Out-Loud Legend

Read the full Legend of Rock Paper Scissors review here.

11. Best for a Five-Year-Old Starting School: The Pigeon HAS to Go to School!

By Mo Willems

Pigeon doesn't need school.

Obviously.

He knows everything.

Then the real worries start coming out.

What if he doesn't like it?

What if the teacher doesn't like him?

What if he learns too much?

Disney-Hyperion published the 40-page book in July 2019 for ages 3 to 5 and specifically recommends it for children and caregivers getting ready for the first day.

That's why I like it at five.

Pigeon starts funny.

Then you realize some of his excuses are nerves wearing a Pigeon costume.

Kids don't need a lecture about school anxiety.

They can watch Pigeon talk his way through it.

Why five-year-olds get it: Pigeon says the nervous things they may not know how to say yet.

12. Best Art-Table Disaster: Too Much Glue

By Jason Lefebvre, illustrated by Zac Retz

Matty likes glue.

A lot.

His teacher warns him.

Matty uses too much anyway.

And soon Matty isn't merely making the art project.

Matty is part of the art project.

This is good five-year-old territory, because the materials are familiar.

Glue.

Art class.

Teacher instructions.

The dangerous temptation to use WAY more of something than necessary.

Then the rescue attempts pile more visual nonsense onto the original problem.

Five-year-olds can follow the escalation without needing it explained.

Matty is stuck.

People are helping.

Helping is making him look increasingly ridiculous.

Excellent.

Why five-year-olds get it: Familiar school setting, art supplies, breaking a rule, sticky disaster.

Belly Laugh Scale: 4/5, Big-Time Belly Laughs

Read the full Too Much Glue review here.

13. Best Chain Reaction: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

By Laura Numeroff, illustrated by Felicia Bond

Give Mouse a cookie.

He'll want something else.

Then something else.

Then something else.

Five-year-olds are old enough to recognize the pattern and start predicting.

That's the fun.

The book teaches them how it works, then lets them play along.

What comes next?

How is Mouse going to get from here back to the beginning?

Felicia Bond's pictures keep Mouse's growing trail of activity clear, which matters, because the joke is partly watching one reasonable little request turn into an entire day.

Why five-year-olds get it: Repetition, prediction, cause and effect, and a mouse with absolutely no ability to stop at one request.

Belly Laugh Scale: 4/5, Big-Time Belly Laughs

Read the full If You Give a Mouse a Cookie review here.

14. Best Book I Want More Five-Year-Olds to Find: What to Do If an Elephant Stands on Your Foot

By Michelle Robinson, illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds

An elephant stands on your foot.

What should you do?

Apparently the answer creates another problem.

And another.

And another.

Dial published the 32-page book for ages 3 to 5. Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review and called it an edgier version of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, which is a useful comparison since both are on this list. School Library Journal called it perfect for storytimes, specifically for the way it lets children predict what comes next.

That's why it makes my list.

Five-year-olds understand instructions.

They also understand the pleasure of watching instructions fail spectacularly.

Every attempted solution pushes the hero deeper into jungle trouble.

And Kirkus noted the ending suggests the story is starting over, which means you're reading it twice.

Why five-year-olds get it: Animals, danger that stays silly, escalating consequences, and prediction.

15. Best for the Kid Who Already Knows the Original: The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!

By Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Lane Smith

The wolf has a complaint.

You have been misinformed.

According to him, this whole Three Little Pigs situation was one enormous misunderstanding involving a cold and some sugar.

Hmm.

I like this at five if the child already knows the traditional story.

That's important.

The joke gets much better when the kid has something to compare the wolf's version against.

Now they can question him.

Wait.

Didn't you blow the house down?

Is this guy telling the truth?

Lane Smith's pictures don't simply decorate the wolf's argument. They build the suspicious, slightly grubby world he's asking us to believe in.

Why five-year-olds get it: They get to challenge a story they thought they already knew.

Belly Laugh Scale: 4/5, Big-Time Belly Laughs

Read the full True Story of the 3 Little Pigs review here.

What Kind of Book Works Best at Five?

Here's where five gets interesting.

A five-year-old can understand more than a preschooler.

But I wouldn't rush to replace pictures with lots of text simply because kindergarten has arrived.

Pictures are doing important work.

They're teaching kids to notice.

Predict.

Compare.

Catch jokes.

Read expressions.

Figure out things the words haven't said.

That's reading too.

And funny picture books are particularly good at it, because the child wants to catch the joke.

Five-Year-Olds Love Knowing More Than the Character

This shows up all over the list.

The kid knows Penelope shouldn't eat her classmates.

The kid knows Pigeon isn't supposed to drive the bus.

The kid knows the salsa is spicy.

The kid knows David is about to get caught.

The kid knows Grover can't actually stop them from turning the page.

That's a powerful comedy position.

You're five.

Adults tell you what to do all day.

Then a book hands you information a character doesn't have.

Suddenly you're the expert.

Use that.

Don't Be Afraid of Repetition

Adults get tired of repetition before kids do.

That's because we're doing different jobs.

We're waiting for new information.

A five-year-old may be enjoying mastery.

They know what's coming.

They know the phrase.

They know the joke.

And now they get to be right.

Again.

That can be enormously satisfying.

If they request the same funny book four nights in a row, the book hasn't failed to challenge them.

It may have succeeded in becoming theirs.

What About Early Readers?

At five, I wouldn't make "can my child read this alone?" the only question.

A book can sit above a child's independent reading level and still be perfect to read with them.

Several books here work precisely because the language an adult performs is richer or stranger than what most five-year-olds could comfortably decode themselves.

That's fine.

Reading aloud and independent reading are different experiences.

Protect both.

A child doesn't have to personally decode every word in The Book With No Pictures to understand exactly how much trouble those words are causing the grown-up.

Jungle Jimmy's Quick Picks

If you want one book to start with, We Don't Eat Our Classmates.

For the biggest grown-up performance, The Book With No Pictures.

For interaction, The Monster at the End of This Book or Don't Push the Button!

For safe spooky, Creepy Pair of Underwear!

For school nerves, The Pigeon HAS to Go to School!

For a kid who loves giant ridiculous voices, The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors.

For a less obvious pick, What to Do If an Elephant Stands on Your Foot.

And if your five-year-old believes books require more dinosaurs?

I respect the position.

If your five-year-old is specifically about to start kindergarten, I sorted the same problem a different way in my kindergarten read-alouds list, which ranks by whether a book can hold a whole room rather than one kid. And if the interactive books above are the ones landing, there are fifteen more here. And when they turn six, the shelf changes: the six-year-old list brings in early readers and a first chapter book.

One More for the Dinosaur Kid

I'm keeping my own books outside the numbered ranking.

Otherwise things get suspicious around here.

But Look! There Are No Dinos Inside Of This Book is aimed squarely at ages 4 to 8. Dangerous Dave insists there are no dinosaurs while the pictures keep proving him wrong.

That's a particularly good fit for five, because the child gets to spot what the grown-up misses.

The kid knows better.

Dave keeps talking.

The dinosaurs keep misbehaving.

Eventually somebody is going to yell at the book.

That's the idea.

Final Explorer Verdict

If you're choosing books for a five-year-old, don't worry too much about finding books that feel advanced.

Find books that make the child do something mentally.

Predict.

Notice.

Argue.

Remember a rule.

Catch a mistake.

Recognize a feeling.

Wait for a page turn.

Laugh because they saw the disaster coming.

That's why We Don't Eat Our Classmates gets my number one spot.

A dinosaur eating children is funny.

But Penelope wanting friends while repeatedly eating the people she wants to be friends with?

Now we have a story.

Readit?

"Yes?"

What's your number one?

"Creepy Pair of Underwear."

Because it's funny?

"Because you said underwear four times."

I knew this would happen.

Keep exploring, Story Seekers!

Jungle Jimmy & Readit