The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales

Scieszka, Jon and Lane Smith (1992). The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. New York, NY: Penguin Books.

The cleaver authors have successfully turned many classic "fairy tales" into fairly stupid tales. Stories include their funny variations of: Little Red Running Shorts (Little Red Riding Hood) where the little girl actually beats the world to grandmother's house, and the Really Ugly Duckling (The Ugly Duckling) where the duckling actually grows up to be an ugly duckling- not a beautiful swan. The stories are so funny and extremely silly! I can remember reading these as 5th grade student (around when the book came out). After re-reading them, I still found myself laughing out loud! These fairy tales are teaching no lessons and morals, simply making us laugh.

The illustrations are great (like all by the Scieszka/Smith duo). Each page is filled with great detail. Some pages might even be a little overdone.  Text and pictures are done in collage like form. The characters might be a little awkward and scary to a younger reader.