The present study examined children's responses to humor in fiction in order to (1) to discover what children find humorous in books they read or in those read to them, (2) to discover how they respond to humorous books, and (3) to understand the implications these responses have for their comprehension and appreciation of humor and for their reading interests and preferences. A qualitative field study was conducted to study responses of children in one grade 4/5 classroom over a five month period. Data were collected by means of participant observation, interviews, and analysis of documents. The results revealed that participants appreciated humor related to (1) superiority or sense of accomplishment, (2) physical events and appearances, (3) the scatological and gross, (4) language and wordplay. Children most often responded to books by: (1) retelling or summarizing, (2) reading aloud from the text, or (3) offering subjective evaluations. Less frequently, they (I) made personal connections or connections to other books, (2) offered statements of analysis, or (3) offered interpretations. Responses revealed that some children lacked background knowledge necessary to understand and appreciate potentially humorous material. Sensitivity to more subtle forms of humor was heightened when passages were read aloud by a skilled reader. The importance of reading and sharing humor as a social process was also revealed by the study's results.
