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. ( )

Independent Reading Level: 4-8 year olds/ Grade Level : Preschool- 2nd
Awards & Honors: A Caledecott Honor Book
A New York Times Best Illustrated Book

I love this stupid book. A beloved read aloud for my students as well. ( )

Independent Reading Level: K-3
Awards: New York Times Best Illustrated Book award
Caldecott Honor book in 1993

9

A hilarious retelling of various fairy tales. The book parodies the classic well-known tales and puts a new spin on them intriguing readers. It would be a great pick for Storytime in libraries. The book has great illustrations as well. ( )

A wonderful book reflecting postmodern children's literature. One of my favorites! ( )

I would use this for primary if I just read one story, but intermedite for other stories since it is full of a bunch of different kind of stories. This book has a bunch of odd stories in it that make kids laugh so I would use this for laughs in class especiallly if someone was having a bad day.

Postmodern Picture Books #1

Jon Scieska and Lane Smith never fail to deliver an awesome book. This book is fractured fairy tales, and things happen that aren't supposed to happen. Something does fall on Chicken Little's head, just not the sky. The Princess and the Pea is reimagined to a bowling ball, the ugly duckling stays ugly, and the gingerbread man is a stinky cheese man that no one wants to eat because he's stinky. Kids love this book as a read aloud, they laugh and laugh at the silly stories. Students will love the illustrations in this book, Lane Smith does a lovely job with his illustrations of each character.

This book is a crazy compilation of fairy tales with a twist. It is a true work of art. A book such as this can teach aspiring writers so many new techniques and skills. It is also eye opening for readers in need of a little inspiration! ( )

I'm a huge fan of Jon Scieszka's alternative fairytale retellings, but this collection fell a bit flat. The stories are still filled with his signature humour and the artwork is expectedly alt, but the stories themselves aren't particularly strong. Scieszka tackles a multitude of well known stories in this collection, but I think it is this lack of focus that weakens the book overall. Usually he is able to get into the character who the story is based around, but with the shorter space given to each story here he is instead relying on the brevity of the stories and pithy punchlines to sell the story. The only story that I feel like works really well is that of Jack and the giant from the beanstalk because he gives enough space to the story for us to see the two charqacters clearly and to engage in some interesting artistic tenchiques as well. Even though the book would have been much shorter, I think it would have been stronger if we had just been given a clever retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk! ( )

Source: Children's Books in Children's Hands
Age: 5-8
Assessment of Quality: This book uses metanarrative, unique illustrations, and playful text formats to create a delightfully zany take on traditional fairytales.
Assessment of potential use: This book would be a great bedtime story or as a learning tool to introduce the concept of metanarrative.
Assessment of appeal to children: The repetitive chant of the stinky cheese man is very catchy and all of the stories are very funny.

You can probably guess from the title that it's a parody. It was cute and amusing. I like when authors start the jokes on the back cover, the title page, the table of contents, etc. It's a cute book... ( )

I was read "The Stinky Cheese Man" quite a lot as a child, so re-reading the book as an adult was a slightly different experience. It's just as funny to me now, but I see the postmodern mashup and subversion of fairy tale tropes. ( )

It begins by identifying what a fairy tale is and explaining that this is not what that is because these are fairly stupid tales. It also explains the characteristics of a book because the story starts and then one of the characters, who is identified as the narrator, says they can't even tell the story yet because its not time for it yet in the book. I think this is a very fun way to discuss different parts of a book while also reading an interpretation of well known stories such as chicken little. As always Scieszka uses goofy stories to teach important concepts to his readers. ( )

A picture book for middle grade readers, with metafictional humor.

Clever and fairly funny. ( )

In this reimagining of such familiar tales as THE UGLY DUCKLING and CHICKEN LITTLE, the characters are anything but familiar. The story itself falls on chicken little and other characters, the ugly duckling grows up to be...ugly. And the gingerbread man is made of stinky cheese, two olives and an old slice of bacon.
I love this book. It may not be full of lessons and warm fuzzy feelings, but it is FUNNY. Kids love it and cackle with laughter while reading it, and I think there is something to be said for that. ( )

A Caldecott Honor Book, filled with different variations of common fairy tales. Some stories are silly and other are just plain "fairly stupid", as the title suggests. The book includes 10 complete "fairly stupid" stories along with 25 painted pictures that accompany each story. A fun read aloud for younger and a fun read for older readers. The illustrations include muted colors of greens, blacks, grays, white, tans, browns and help depict the premise of the book, "fairly stupid" tales. The author provides non-traditional methods in introducing title page, table of contents, and back cover. ( )

This book does indeed contains some fairly stupid tales. It contains silly retellings of some classic tales and fables. At times the narrator interrupts, the characters argue back and forth. The illustrations are really fabulous and make the whole book. ( )

Top 100 Pick because:
A comical new version of classic fairy tales, full of hijinks and frantic characters that crash into each other's stories. The zaniness is apparent from end page to end page, with different fonts of every page, varying sizes, placement, and rhythms. The illustrations perfectly reflect the unique ridiculousness of the narrative. I love reading about fairy tales for different ages and versions. This version was so unexpected when I read it, having never done so as a child. I wish I had. Delightful and hopefully my sister will let me read it to my niece and nephew. ( )

Take a bunch of well-known fairy tales, and turn them inside out and upside down, and you will get the Stinky Cheese Man. Children and adults will enjoy this fractured set of tales that poke fun at many of the fairy tales we all know and love. With illustrations, and editing choices that will keep everyone engaged, Scieszka and Smith will create a lasting impression on readers. ( )

The best book I have read so far for my class!!! I love this book form beginning to end. It is ever so deserving of the Caldecott Honor. I was able to act out and read in so many different voices which enhanced the story even more. I wish I can not wait to read this to a class one day (soon), their reactions to these classic fairytales is going to be priceless just as mines was. Let's get into the illustration, for a second. AMAZING! my favorites, I definitely could not pick just one were: the The Tortoise and the Hair, the little curl on the "last" page of the story added a cute effect to emphasize how illustrations tell their own story. My baby nephew giggled so much when I read to him the Chicken licked story that it automatically became one of my favorites, and lastly Jack Problem, my low, and mellow giant voice matched the illustration perfect and the word play that went along with it. These stories and illustrations just to name a few are the reasons why I absolutely love this book. ( )

A few laughs and a few groans were caused by this fun read. ( )