Part of the "Teaching Young People to be Critical Series," this booklet defines and analyzes humor for children in light of theories of philosophers Ludwig Wittenstein and John Dewey. Intended for individual or small group work, the objectives are threefold: reading improvement, reading enjoyment, and student involvement in making the leap from abstractions to practicalities in dealing with some of life's more common enigmas. Humor is produced by the thought that there is a mistake, but one which is not bad or harmful. This engenders laughter and good feelings. It is largely based on things we cannot understand, such as contradiction, nonsense, illusion, deviation from the usual, among others. The author's intent is to help children learn to analyze their humor, which will aid in analyzing the kinds of mistakes they make. In doing this, the child will realize that much of what he thinks is true is really nonsense. There are many techniques used to create humor, and the author spends the remainder of the book defining and analyzing them. Among those discussed are accident humor, ambiguity humor, behavior, caricature humor, circular humor, conceit humor, connotation humor, contradiction humor, and deviation humor, concluding with a discussion of forbidden, or hurtful, value terms used as humor. (CK)