Once you start it, you won't be able to switch it off!
Advantages:
Anarchic, subversive dark humour for kids .
Disadvantages:
Are you kidding me? !
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
...to protect the not-so innocent"
For anyone who has ever plumbed the depths of children's literature (and there are some), Jon Scieszka is the kind of name that calls to you from the heavens and pulls you up into the realms of literary happiness. His darkly comic irreverent humour has lined the bookshelves of children for quite a few years now ("The Stinky Cheese Man" has just seen its tenth anniversary) but it was with total surprise that I came across this endlessly hilarious creation, published in 1998.
Along with Burton-esque illustrator Lane Smith, Scieszka has created a set of eighteen wickedly subversive and humanly hysterical fables for children. Working on the premise that "even thousands of years ago people were bright enough to figure out that you could gossip about anybody - as longas you changed their name to something like "Lion" or "Mouse" or "Donkey" first, Scieszka gives a heads up to Aesop and sets off along his merry way...
The only way to really put across some of the fantastic humour in this book is to quote it. However, quite apart from probably not being legally sound, it would be a shame to give away too much of the content of this surprising and witty book. So instead, I hope to tempt you by giving away just a tiny selection of the morals you might find at the end of these stories:
"Squids will be squids"
"Shoot. It's not my fault"
"You should always tell the truth. But if your mother is out having the hair taken off her lip, you might want to forget a few of the details"
"Slugs are not unlike squids"
"Just because you have a lot of stuff, don't think you're so special"
Getting there? Let me tell you some more...
Each fable is a marvellously constructed little bit of observational comedy. Scieszka more or less owns up to using real life as his inspiration, and some of the scenarios (lost homework, not ringing home, giving away just that little bit too much information) are so real and so familiar that the knowing wink Scieszka is effectively giving is transmitted loud and clear. I sat in the library reading this, hunched and shaking to stop from laughing out loud. The breath of fresh air that it gives children's books is undeniable, and the wealth of detail admirable.
None of the fables is very long, but they are so beautifully arranged that you want to linger over reading them. This leads me neatly onto the outstanding work of Lane Smith, whose illustrations are weird and wonderful and dark and bizarre and sketchy and detailed and colourful and rich and just about any other good thing I can think of in an illustration. The front cover alone, with its angular inky squid tentacles and wonderfully old-fashioned script, is enough to make you want to dive into the book... Then flip to the back cover, with it's dour squid (which, if anyone's seen the Nightmare Before Christmas, looks remarkably like a slimy character in that!), complete with prissy plaits and flowers on her brow... Well, it's just perfect. The mixture of font sizes and the beautiful page layouts mean that it is a remarkably beautiful, brilliantly quirky book.
The content is, in language terms, outstandingly simple; any child could read it. Obviously it's the undercurrent that not everyone will pick up on, but this truly is the kind of book to introduce as a beloved tome to children early on, and let it grow in meaning and accessibility as they get older. Perhaps some of the creepier illustrations would not appeal to the youngest of children, but I do think that's requires parental subjectivity, and all parents should really read whatever they're giving their children anyway, if they can find the time! As a teacher, I would use this in any KS2 class, probably even my Year 3s... had I known about this when we were covering myths and fables, I certainly would have tried it out.
As with all Scieszka books, what you see initially is not everything you get. Turn to the publishing details. That's just inside the back cover in the paper back.
Here they are:
Puffin (1998) £6.99 rrp
ISBN 0-14-056523-X
www.penguin.com
And then:
"All the paintings in this book are actually illustrations"
"And yes, we know that "squid" is often thought of as the preferred form for the plural of "squid". But if "squids" is good enough for the Encyclopedia Britannica, it good enough for us..."
...and I'm not going to complete the rest of that sentence (and it's funny) because I want you to beg borrow or steal the book and find out for yourself.
So, what else can I say? Clever? Check. Gorgeous? Check. Must-read? Check. This is a book that won me over from the first page (including, on the jacket of the hard back, "Ages 49-630 in dog years") and kept the humour right up to the short but terribly pertinent little history lesson that's included at the end. Any parent with a sense of humour would, I believe, relish this opportunity to break with some of the more traditionally cute offerings (I'm not saying "Love You Forever" isn't one of my favourite books, but I like to laugh as well as cry!).
Run to Amazon, whence I found it for around £4, or to anywhere else you think might have it.
Thanks for reading.
Alex xxx
PS This really has nothing to do with Shel Silverstein (although you should be reading The Giving Tree also). I just had to request it under the nearest alphabetical option. Perhaps in due course Ciao will remedy this. Perhaps not. :)
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How does it compare to similar audio books?
Excellent
How does it compare to audio works by the same author?
Excellent
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