The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales

This is possibly my all-time favorite picture book. I was first introduced to it when my third grade teacher read parts of it aloud as a treat for the class. I thought it was the greatest thing ever back then. I still do!

The appeal in the book is the reworking of well-known fairy tales and the comic interruptions by other characters. (Seriously, is the hen the funniest thing ever or what?) I think this book is probably one of the greatest influences on my sense of humor, and I can see how my enjoyment of The Stinky Cheese Man has turned into a love for Discworld and John Hodgman.

(My favorite joke ever when I was eight years old was the screaming by the hen on the back cover with regards to the ISBN code. It still makes me laugh, show more seventeen years later!)

Oh, also, because I almost forgot: this book is fantastic as an example of how with picture books, the experience starts with the cover and goes through every page to the back. I could easily see this being used in a university level literary theory course to show how paratextual information can be part of and change a reading.

PS: The illustrations are pretty snazzy, too. show less

Yeah, the subtitle really says it all: fairly stupid. Not only that, but purposely repulsive visually with its kindergarten collage illustration style and ransom-note, pied-typecase layout and typography, and unbearably twee with all the post-modernist nudging and winking to make sure we get the deconstructionist concept. (Eric Idle has nothing on Scieszka when it comes to "nudge nudge, wink wink.") Left to my own devices, I'd tear out the pages one by one and WRAP THINGS IN THEM. That's all I think it's good for—fish-wrap.

This collection of fairly stupid stories is truly for everyone. This fairytale spoof appeals to all ages. The Gingerbread Man, Jack and the Beanstalk, Chicken Little, Rumpelstiltskin, The Princess and the Pea, Little Red Riding Hood, The Ugly Duckling, The Tortoise and the Hare, The Little Red Hen.......they're all here, and they're all hilariously lampooned.

This parody style humor also includes off kilter layouts and illustrations.....upside down words, words falling off the pages, alternating font styles, alt imaging, etc. This book is absolute literary anarchy!

Hah, well this book is ridiculous! I do remember thinking it was so incredibly funny as a child. Sorta grim and bully-ish though coming back to it? It is incredibly clever. Scieszka and Smith broke the mold here and really the composition and illustrations are what make this book really memorable rather than what the text actually reads. Definitely have a big illustrator crush on Lane Smith. All his work has this edge of twisted-ness and mania. A little Dali like ... We could see this in Math Curse as well but I think his style in general has gotten more kid friendly. One drawback is I think the reader would have need to have read normal fairy tales first. Any book that relies on another can be a little weaker.

From the table of contents falling from the sky to Little Red Running Shorts (a spin on Little Red Riding Hood), Jack the narrator takes you on a journey of fairly stupid tales. The stories are comical spins on traditional fantasy tales. An element of the book consists of a page left blank. This is an attempt by narrator Jack to allow the giant to continue is nap and ultimately trying to avoid being part of his afternoon snack.

I enjoyed the interruptions of the hen and Jack, the narrator's rants about his need for book organization, but showing us (the readers) everything but an organized book. It turned into comedy. If a book starts out with the table of contents falling from the sky and reveals the true life of a very ugly duckling, show more not much more could be expected, but other fairly stupid tales.

In the classroom, I would give the students string cheese as a teaser to produce anticipation for the Stinky Cheese Man story. I would use this opportunity for a creative writing exercise by instructing the students to create his/her own fairly stupid tale. show less

You and your child will be laughing so hard when you read this book aloud. Completely and utterly irreverent humor as Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith mock the traditional fairy tales in this Caldecott Honored book. Favorites include "Cinderumplelstiltskin or The Girl Who Really Blew It", "The Other Frog Prince" where "the princess wiped the frog slime off her lips" and "The Really Ugly Duckling" who "grew up to be just a really ugly duck." You'll be having so much fun reading this book aloud to your children that your laughter and enthusiasm will be completely contagious.

The stinky cheese man and the other fairly stupid tales in the book take on a humorous rendition of the classic fairy tales I grew up with. The book takes readers along a journey of the popular classical fair tales such as the gingerbread man, the ugly duckling, and others but puts an odd twists in each of the tales that are all interlinked with each other. Scieszka's humor is very contagious and uses the narrator of the story to make sense of all the parts of the book. The illustrations are quirky, weird, and adds to the humorous tone of the book. The characters are also overly personified. The narrator, for example, appears in most of the stories to interrupt the nonsensical story plots. His voice can be imagined by readers that helps show more keep the crazy stories together. Furthermore, the overly personified chicken at the end of the book complains about the ISBN code at the end of the book which brings the characters to life. It actually feels like the characters are real. The illustrations; however, say otherwise. The illustrations are so unrealistic, such as the cheese with a body and really ugly duck, that there seems to be a constant cognitive dissonance that somehow has me wanting for more. show less