Cast Your Vote: The 2014 Blogettes Funny Prize...by Marcie Colleen

It’s awards season!  

Social media is abuzz with mock ballots and predictions.  Every day seems to bring nomination lists or announcements of wins of awards, some of which I have never even heard of.

As the prestigious Caldecott draws near the question on everyone’s lips: are you Team Journey or Team Mr. Tiger? 

It’s fun to get caught up in the excitement.

There are a slew of awards…

but where is the award for the funniest book of the year? I really wish America had an equivalent of the UK’s Roald Dahl Funny Prize.  

Well, if necessity is truly the mother of invention, I hereby establish the Blogettes Funny Prize and I cast my vote for what I think was the funniest picture book of 2013.

Mustache Baby by Bridget Heos, illustrated by Joy Ang.

Now for a little personal backstory.  When this book first came out I rolled my eyes.  Maybe it’s because I live in Brooklyn, the facial hair capital of the hipster world.  Mustaches are such a trend right now and I found it silly that a picture book would stretch that trend.  I just didn’t get it…but I had never read it either.

After hearing lots of people rave about this book, I finally picked it up at a bookstore one evening. And it was laugh out loud funny! Dare I say, it was brilliant!

The premise:
When Baby Billy is born with a mustache, his family takes it in stride.  They are reassured when he nobly saves
the day in imaginary-play sessions as a cowboy or a cop and his mustache looks good-guy great.  But as time
passes, their worst fears are confirmed when little Billy’s mustache starts to curl up at the ends in a suspiciously villainous fashion.  Sure enough, “Billy’s disreputable mustache led him into a life of dreadful crime.”  

Why my nomination for the Blogettes Funny Prize: 

• Heos’ has created a brilliantly unique twist on the idea of moods, the terrible 2s, and naughtiness that has never been done before!  Through the idea of a “good guy mustache” or a “bad guy mustache” she is able to address these evergreen subjects with a fun modern flourish and avoids sounding stale or heavy-handed.
• The illustrations support this funny text, but the humor is truly from Heos’ hilarious premise and dazzling storytelling.      
• The unexpected abounds with every page turn.  I had no idea what to expect from this book, but literally laughed out loud.·        
• I like to be proven wrong. 

 
So what about you?

Cast your nominations for the Blogettes Funny Prize.

Nominations must be picture books traditionally published in the year 2013.

In the comments, tell us your choice and the reason for your nomination.

Let’s make this the year we shine a much-deserved light on the books that make us laugh.

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In previous chapters Marcie Colleen has been a teacher and
theatre educator, but now she splits her days between chasing the Picture Book Writer dream and chasing toddlers on the playground as a nanny. Both are equally glamorous!

Her blog, The Write Routine and her Teacher’s Guides, can be found at www.thisismarciecolleen.com.  You can also follow her on Twitter. Additionally, Marcie is the Education Consultant for Picture Book Month.

She  contributes the 4th Friday of the month, as a Blogette, right here, posting on humor in picture books.

Marcie lives with her fiancé and their mischievous sock monkey in Brooklyn, NYC. 

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