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The book pokes fun at fairy tales, but that its hook. It grabs the attention of the reader by using familiar stories. The reader expects one plots, but gets another. Readers familiar with the story will realize that theses tales are not quite like the others.Yet, the conclusion of The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales is disappointing.
Jon Scieszka, The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (Viking, 1992)I've been hearing about this book forever, so I finally got round to picking up a copy and breezing through it. If you're tired of reading the same old Cinderella stories to your kids, pick this up and have a blast. There's a lot to be said about the undermining of the world of fairy tales, but not being a scholar of same, I'm not the one to do so (one hopes that eventually one of the mythpunks will get around to doing a comprehensive review of this little tome.)., but I recognize the utter brilliance that runs through this book. Scieszka turns fairy tales on their heads, taking jabs at every fairy tale convention there is, turning every sacred cow into shish kebabs and doing so in an extremely amusing way. They'll love it as much as you will. ****
The book was a fun read, and my 5 year old really enjoyed it. It even had me laughing at quite a few of the jokes.
The graphic design of book is pretty OK, but it doesn't compensate for the bad (terrible) stories.
My son is three and too impressionable for this book (I also just saw the recommended age is 4-8)- MY FAULT. These books are great comedy if you are familiar with the fairy tales they parody. However, the style is a bit "smartmouthed" for young listeners and readers. I thoroughly enjoyed reading these stories, but will wait for my son to be a little more "mature" to reintroduce it to the bedtime line-up. I think your child should be able to understand sarcasm in order to enjoy these stories.
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