Jon Scieszka

There are parts of this book which are gut-wrenchingly hilarious, but I'm pretty sure you need to be a guy to not be grossed out. It seems to me that full appreciation of the refined humor in a phrase like "pecan-nut cat yak" may require a Y chromosome, I'm not sure. This, of course, is what you get in a short memoir about growing up as one of six brothers. The chapters are extremely brief--sometimes just a page or two--and the book is really more a collection of vignettes than a cohesive narrative. While I was a bit disappointed by the lack of a broad story arc, I can totally see my ten-year-old self reading this book over and over again. It likely would have also inspired a considerable amount of mayhem.… (mehr)

In Return of the Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi says "Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view." Alexander T. Wolf couldn't agree more. The narrator of Scieszka and Smith's seminal fractured fairy tale wants his audience to believe that "the whole Big Bad Wolf thing" is a misunderstanding involving hay fever and a birthday cake. Lane's collage style illustrations favor browns, beiges, and blacks as the wolf explains how each pig not only accidentally died as a result of poor engineering, but was rude to boot! This unique style, which sometimes drifts into the surrounding white space, creates a strong interest for both young and older readers. Scieszka's text has a breezy, reasonable quality to it which makes the audience want to believe this most unreliable of narrators.… (mehr)

This Caldecott Honor Book by [a:Jon Scieszka|27318|Jon Scieszka|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1201028327p2/27318.jpg] (author) and [a:Lane Smith|23573|Lane Smith|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] (illustrator) not only parodies traditional fairy tales, but does so with an unconventional artistic style. Following the success of [b:The True Story of the Three Little Pigs|125507|The True Story of the Three Little Pigs|Jon Scieszka|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171904369s/125507.jpg|120878], Scieszka and Smith present a compilation of brief, humorous retellings of classic stories. Thus, Chicken Little becomes Chicken Licken, The Princess and the Pea becomes the Princess and the Bowling Ball, and the Gingerbread Man becomes the titular Stinky Cheese Man (who no one wants to catch). The artwork, true to Smith's style, is intricate and unique, blending shades of Tim Burton and Picasso. Defying the status quo, the colors are dark, but retain their visual impact thanks to Smith's excellent line work and sense of depth. Given fine mixture of the obvious and the subtle humor, this would make excellent reading for grades five and beyond.… (mehr)

After giving the Big Bad Wolf his say and covering the Gingerbread man in stinky cheese, Scieszka and Smith have now flipped Aesop on his head. Similar to The Stinky Cheese Man, this book presents a series of brief stories which only loosely resemble Aesop's original fables. Each piece contains a clearly identified moral (it labels it "moral" with brackets and a different font). In "Frog's New Shoes", for instance, Frog watches a TV commercial for new skateboard shoes, runs out to buy them, and ends up face-down on the pavement because, as the moral tells the reader, "Everyone knows frogs can't skateboard, but it's kind of sad that they believe everything they see on TV." While many of the stories are humorous, and Lane's trademark style and coloring are present, the book lacks the unifying narrative thread which marked the success of their other collaborations.… (mehr)