Tomfoolery: Trickery and Foolery With Words

by Alvin Schwartz

Includes riddles and tricks taken from American folktales, songs, and games

Genres: Childrens

128 pages, Paperback

First published May 23, 1975

About the author

Alvin^Schwartz
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Alvin Schwartz was the author of more than fifty books dedicated to and dealing with topics such as folklore and word play, many of which were intended for young readers. He is often confused with another Alvin_Schwartz, who wrote Superman and Batman daily comics strips and a novel titled The Blowtop.

For Batman - See: Alvin^^Schwartz https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Reviews

[Thomas Pfaff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tomfoolery was given to me at Christmas. Probably because of my name (Tom). I memorized many jokes and humorous sayings out of this book when I was ten years old that I have never forgotten. My children love hearing me tell the jokes in this book and surprised me by learning one of the rather long nonsensical stories while still very young.

The book catalogues many cultural jokes and humorous stories that were told in the old days before T.V. Many of these stories are now easily found on the Internet. But if you start with this book you can find many more. In other words, it's a good starting point for anyone who just isn't able to take life too seriously!

It's outta print but available here and there. Many copies were produced back in the day.

[Emmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This silly book was a lot of fun. Schwartz collects a lot of interesting little jokes and wordplay, making for a delightful and entertaining experience from cover-to-cover. I'm currently reading most of his books, and this is one that I think I might have read before, as a child, although I'm not entirely sure. Some of the content was so familiar to me.

The tone of the book was definitely reminiscent of Flapdoodle (also by Schwartz), although without the "nonsense" bits. Both are a great read, and I recommend both to the interested reader.

[Jim Andrew Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book when I was a kid and still have some of the nonsensical rhymes and jokes memorized after all these years. A lot of the entries are incredibly corny and very dated, but I still use a few of the poems and gags as part of my "dad joke" repertoire.

[Kelly Beck · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 7th grade my friend and I were school library aids and stumbled upon this collection of “trickery and foolery”. It was so ridiculous we couldn’t tell if we were laughing with it or at it. Still today i have those same questions.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought it on Amazon for less than $2. It had 2 poems (sort of poems) that I loved since childhood. They were fun, nonsensical and I wanted to be able to share them with others. The rest of the things in the book were ok. Nothing compared to the poems for creativity.

[tyRonE hArDing · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of fun. Remember reading this a dozen times as a kid.

[David Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun book to read. Many rhymes, tongue twisters and devilishly hard passages to read. It would be fun to read some of the tongue twisters with a class to show children how to have fun with words and how to manipulate them. It would also be a great book for ESLs. It may be difficult for them to understand some of the content at first, but by practicing reading and reciting the tongue twisters and difficult world patterns that arise in this book, they will develop an understanding of the complicated language and increase their language levels.

[Veronica Perdomo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll confess, part of the reason this book tickles me pink is the title alone. Beyond that, it's a bunch of silliness and HORRIBLE puns. Perfect book for kids! Anyone else might get punched in the face if they tell too many of these.

Among my favorites:

What's round, purple, and hums?
An electric grape.

What's grey and has four legs and a trunk?
A mouse on vacation.

What has six legs and barks?
(I have no idea.)
A dog.
(A dog?)
I added two legs to make it harder.

[Bree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Notes:
play on words/puns/etc
all Schwartz books have a scary story or several
had fun reading this frequently

[Rat Boy Hedonist · Rating 3 out of 5]

It really is!!!

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

1 piece of the puzzle