Squids Will Be Squids: Fresh Morals, Beastly Fables

This hilarious book filled with contemporary, unexpected, relatable, and weird fables can have readers laughing no matter their age. At the end of every fable is a straightly given moral that has a humorous tone but definitely holds truth. These are easy for children to understand and can help them see that even through all of the silliness, there is a purpose for reading these fables. The illustrations of this story are equally as strange as the writing. They are intriguing and will definitely have listening children engaged. In my own classroom I would like to read one of these fables a day and then have a class discussion by sharing how we feel that we relate or what we have experienced that is similar to the day's fable.

My favorite of Jon Szieska's wonderful books: This one is brilliantly funny and also a bit disturbing. It has just the right dose of darkness and satire beneath the whimsical silliness. A truly brilliant children's book is a delight for adults and for little kids, and Squids Will Be Squids is, I think, such a book. One of the few children's books that you won't get tired of reading over and over, and one of the few you might enjoy reading on your own, no kids around.

Another delightfully offbeat Scieszka-Smith collaboration. These guys have got to be the They Might Be Giants of picture books. (Sadly, They Might Be Giants have released a picture book, and shown that they are not, in fact, the They Might Be Giants of picture books.)

Meaghan showed me this book ages ago, but I forgot about it until the other day, when I was reading an article about books with simple language and sophisticated concepts, suitable for use in teaching English and/or literacy to teenagers. Squids Will Be Squids is such a book -- its fables satirize a lot of common foibles in such a way that my students would recognize themselves and their friends -- but it succeeds because it's not designed to be this kind of book. Textbooks show more read like textbooks; no matter how "fun" they are, they're never really fun. Squids can be funny for kids and parents, something like Sesame Street. It can make you laugh, it can make you think, and it won't make you worry too much about vocabulary.

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Oh my.  I laughed out loud several times and read several to my husband, who also lol'd, even though he didn't see the pix.  This should be in every classroom library so those 'sitting in the back of the room goofing off instead of paying attention' kids will have a book to love.  And it'd be a great Writing Prompt exercise.  Just don't write a fable about a 'bossy jerk guy' without changing enough details so he won't recognize himself and throw you off a cliff.  How did I miss this until now?  I know that just about everything by this team is wonderful.

This book by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith is the fables turned on their heads. The parable morals of each story are delightful because each twisted fable is essentially a drawn-out narrative joke. Whether your favorite is "the termite, and, and echidna" or "slug's bit moment," your early reader will find joy in these silly stories and wonderfully expressive illustrations.

Another great one from Jon Scieszka! In this book he has decided to rewrite the famous Aesop's Fables through the eyes of a young student who had figured out that you can talk about other people all you want as long as you change their name to an animal and find a lesson in the story. So that is what he did. I thought this book was very funny and can see children finding the humor quickly. The scenarios presented are very relatable and the "morals" are kind of like advice for surviving middle school.

An irreverant take on classic fables from Aesop. Modernized and filled with sarcastic morals at the end of each fable. The fantastical drawings and biting humor will make everyone laugh.