The other night my daughter let me choose what book to read with her before bed time. Her only request — "pick a funny one." I reached for The Stupids Take Off by Harry Allard, illustrated by the great James Marshall. Later that night, after we giggled our way through the story, I recounted to my boys some funny lines from the book, which, of course, led to a second reading with them. Here are a few of our favorites: "At 10,000 feet the Stupids happened to pass Louise Fifi Stupid. "Can't stop to talk," said Louise Fifi. "I'm off to Grandfather Stupid's graduation from kindergarten. Au revoir!"

“Isn't Spanish a beautiful language?" said Mrs. Stupid.

And another: "On the spur of the moment the Stupids decided to attend little Patty Stupid's sixth birthday party. "Why are there eight candles on the cake? said Buster. "Because I didn't have six" said Patty. "That makes sense," said Buster.

It's no surprise that Dav Pilkey adored The Stupids. These books, I read, served as inspiration for his Dumb Bunnies series and, I would bet, equally inspired his very funny Captain Underpants series. I think the Stupids books are a perfect marriage of text and art. Clearly, the Allard/Marshall team was anything BUT stupid. Genius all the way.