In his Apologetics class at Monsignor Bonner High School, Ed Stivender had a special reputation—he was the class clown. One day he pushed Father McGinnis just a little too far, and the teacher gave him a surprising punishment: Ed had to take part in a debate about The Existence of God. And even tougher, he had to argue the side against God’s existence.

Have you ever heard the silly story about the woman whose beehive hairdo was sprayed so stiff that tiny creatures decided it would make a perfect home? Everyone seems to know someone who knows someone it happened to—though the details always get a little mixed up. That’s the magic of urban legends. They’re modern folktales, passed along as “totally true,” even though they always happened to a “friend of a friend.”

A long, twisty highway. Kids squabbling in the back seat. Parents trying every trick they know to keep the peace. It sounds like an ordinary family road trip—but Donald Davis turns it into an adventure no one forgets.

African-American Folktales is a lively collection of over 30 traditional stories designed to engage and entertain young readers.

Not everyone can turn a near‑disaster into a hilarious story—but Brummett sure can. He can make you laugh about the time he jumped off a thirty‑foot windmill into a water tank that turned out to have only three feet of water in it. He can even make a day that began with three giant scorpion stings sound like something you’d tell around a campfire. And somehow, he can turn the moment his three‑year‑old grandson got tossed off a bull—flying higher than Brummett had ever seen a kid fly—into a tale you can’t help but chuckle at.

Billy Edd Wheeler has been part of the country music world for a long time. He started writing songs in Nashville back in the early 1960s, so he knows country music inside and out. And as the person folks call the “Dean of Country Humor,” he knows how to make people laugh, too.

This cheerful collection of church humor doesn’t make fun of faith—it simply reminds us that even the people who lead us can be wonderfully human. These stories and jokes are gentle enough to share with your pastor and clean enough to tell right in church, but they still carry an important message: good leaders serve others with kindness and humility.

More Laughter in Appalachia is the authors' fourth collection of funny tales from the Southern mountains, and it might be their silliest and most wide‑ranging book yet. It’s filled with jokes, short stories, poems, riddles, and even songs. You’ll also find some surprising treasures, like a funny old‑time sermon, a playful political speech from long ago, and even a comical arrest warrant that shows just how creative mountain humor can be.

What’s the Monster Stick? It’s Paul’s gigantic fishing pole—nine feet long and packed with miles of super‑strong fishing line and shiny, custom‑made sinkers that slide like magic. From the moment Paul gets the Monster Stick, his adventures grow wilder than anything Paul Bunyan ever dreamed up. At one point, he even manages to hook a DC‑10 airplane flown by sneaky smugglers. How he does that… well, that’s part of the fun.

The hills and small towns of western North Carolina in the 1950s come to life in this collection of stories by master storyteller Donald Davis. He’s shared his tales everywhere—from the World’s Fair to the Smithsonian to the National Storytelling Festival—and now he invites readers into the adventures of his own childhood. His stories follow him from his earliest school days all the way to the moment he begins to understand the big changes happening in the world, including the loss of friends during the Vietnam War.

When Juan Bobo thinks his pig wants to go to church, he dresses the animal in his mother’s best clothes and sparkling jewelry.

A tiny sandpiper and a giant whale start a funny but serious battle over who owns the beach. When they call in all their animal cousins to help, the birds and sea creatures soon realize that their fight is hurting the ocean they both share.

Discover hilarious world folktales in Noodlehead Stories, a perfect book for children who love funny...

Three pigs spend their money on different things: potato chips, sody-pop, and building supplies. It...