The Funniest Bone Animal Jokes series picks up the baton of that tried-and-true mainstay of middle-grade recesses all over the planet: the groan-worthy joke. The series design is not especially inspiring: nonglossy pages with various bits of clip art and anthropomorphic illustrations from a variety of sources. But it's safe to say that these gray pages will soon be colorfully spattered with food particles from kids' yuk-yukking. Each title is rather impressively focused upon a certain type of animal and then divides that even further into four-page chapters. The proof, though, is in the jokes themselves, which are interspersed with animal fun facts, limericks, and tongue twisters. How do these gags grab you? From Amusing Animal Jokes to Tickle Your Funny Bone: "What do you get when you cross a tiger with a housecat? New furniture." If you haven't fainted from eye-rolls, each book concludes with a nifty craft. Happy jesting.

These volumes present mostly familiar (along with some that are fresher) animal-centric jokes, tongue twisters, and limericks; "Fun Facts" text boxes provide a little nonfiction alongside the zaniness. The books are divided into short, topic-based chapters; each busy spread is illustrated with flat black-and-white cartoons. Washed-out printing and flimsy pages lessen the series' value. Reading list, websites. Glos., ind.