The reader joins Freddy Fafnaffer the pig as he deals with Mr. Frimdimpny, a crocodile who never laughs and who decides on the rules for reading this book.

Taking laughter's revelatory capacity as a starting point, and rooted in Nuar Alsadir's experience as a poet and psychoanalyst, Animal Joy is an ode to spontaneity and feeling alive. "Laughter shakes us out of our deadness. An outburst of spontaneous laughter is an eruption from the unconscious that, like political resistance, poetry, or self-revelation, expresses a provocative, impish drive to burst free from external constraints. Taking laughter's...

"Young Henry Hyena loves to join his fellow hyenas in poking fun at animals at the zoo. But the jokes aren't making Henry laugh anymore, [and] with the help of a wise old giraffe, Henry gets his laugh back in an unexpected way"--