I will soon be posting my review for this brilliant book it first, here is a super guest post from author, Hannah Moffatt!
Why is humour important?
Laughter is good for you.
Google it. You’ll find plenty of articles saying it boosts endorphins, lowers stress levels and, if nothing else, it works the stomach muscles.
If we want children to read for pleasure (which I do) then making books pleasurable to read – with a good dose of daftness, seems like a sensible place to start. It is for me, anyway.
In children’s books, laughter is also a great way to make talking about tough topics easier. Whenever I write about humour, I always mention the GK Chesterton quote: Funny is the opposite of not funny. And nothing else. There’s no reason why a child (or reader of any age, for that matter) can’t laugh their way through a story and still take away something serious from it. In fact, a bit like sneaking extra vegetables into a lasagne, I think it’s easier to get tricky messages into books with a lighter tone.
When I was writing Small! I wanted children to see that most things that go wrong in life aren’t their fault. But I didn’t want to write a heavy tome about divorce. Or changing schools. Or learning to accept who you are. All those ideas run through Small! They just do it against a backdrop of a Stinking Sinking Swamp, giants attempting can-can lessons and all the swamp fish and bogweed sandwiches you can eat.
Laughter makes it easier for us to face our anxieties. And if we recognise our anxieties in a fictional character, and that character lives to tell the tale, we realise that maybe, just maybe, we’ll be okay, too
My Shelves Are Full 