''The Happy Hocky Family!'' is a children's book by author and illustrator

Lane Smith Walter Lane Smith III (April 29, 1936 – June 13, 2005) was an American actor. His well-known roles included newspaper editor Perry White in the ABC series '' Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'', Walter Warner in ''Son in Law'', coll ...

. Written in a style similar to the ''

Dick and Jane ''Dick and Jane'' are the two main characters created by Zerna Sharp for a series of basal readers written by William S. Gray to teach children to read. The characters first appeared in the ''Elson-Gray Readers'' in 1930 and continued in a subse ...

'' books, it tells a series of short, typically single page, stories about the Hocky family, which includes the two parents, three children, their dog, and occasionally their cousin.

About The Book

The book is not a typical picture book in that the humor in it tends to be slightly dark and

sarcastic Sarcasm is the caustic use of words, often in a humorous way, to mock someone or something. Sarcasm may employ ambivalence, although it is not necessarily ironic. Most noticeable in spoken word, sarcasm is mainly distinguished by the inflection ...

, as in the works of Jon Scieszka.

Sequel

A sequel, ''

The Happy Hocky Family Moves to the Country! ''The Happy Hocky Family Moves to the Country!'' is a book by Lane Smith. A sequel to his book ''The Happy Hocky Family!'', it tells a number of very short stories about the Hocky family and their new home in the country. It was published in 2 ...

'', was released in 2002.

References

External links

Lane Smith's Website
American picture books Children's short story collections 1993 children's books {{1990s-child-story-collection-stub