Authors Who Don't Take Themselves Too Seriously

This week, we're talking about Dr. Seuss, who writes a lot of children's books (obviously.)  While some of his books do have beat you over the head messages in them (The Lorax, whaaaaaat?), a lot of his books are just silly and fun and made to make a kid laugh (Check out our favorite Dr. Seuss book tomorrow and you'll see a few.)

Here are a few other authors who remember that not all of life is SERIOUS BUSINESS

Lemony Snickett

If you've ever read any of the Series of Unfortunate Events books, you realize that Snickett is all about the sarcasm.  He's constantly defining things in his books, but in such a way that it makes it obvious that he believes reader already KNOWS what the words mean.  People also die in the most ridiculous fashions in his books.  As if all that wasn't enough, he wrote a book called Lemony Snickett: The Unauthorized Autobiography.

Louis Sachar


If you've ever read a single book by him, you realize immediately that he's all about the fun and funny for kids.  He wrote Sideways Stories from Wayside School, which we've reviewed, which is all about a school that was built 30 stories tall by accident.  Kids get potato tattoos, rats come to class and there is no 19th story.  There is no Mrs. Zarves.






Dav Pilkey

Captain Underpants is a book about kids who managed to hypnotize their principle and make him run around in his underwear and a towel.  The whole book is silly and ridiculous, and even Pilkey has said that he wrote the book to be for kids with ADHD.  He even uses the pen names George Beard and Harold Hutchins, the two characters in his book who are writing about their adventures.

Douglas Adams

You only have to be one chapter into The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to realize that Adams is all about a chuckle.  We learn that it's always good to have a towel, the guide has "Don't Panic" written on the cover, and we all know that 42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything.

What silly authors do you like best?  What about authors who take themselves a bit too seriously?