The Stinky Cheese and Other Fairly Stupid Tales - Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith

"A long time ago, 

people used to tell magical stories 

of wonder and enchantment. 

Those stories were called Fairy Tales. 

Those stories are not in this book. 

The stories in this book are almost Fairy Tales. 

But not quite."

I remember reading this book as a third grader and thinking that it was quite possibly one of the strangest things that I had ever read. And even, at age 22, I'm still thinking it is quite possibly one of the strangest books I have ever read. However, I have a new-found appreciation for this book and all of its idiosyncrasies. 

This book takes classically-known fairy tales and puts spins on each one, and renames them as they go. The Table of Contents (after it squashed everybody) introduces the breakdown of all of the stories and their "re-namings." The stories that are included in the fractured fairytale collection are: Chicken Licken, The Princess and the Bowling Ball, The Really Ugly Duckling, The Other Frog Prince, Little Red Running Shorts, Jack's Bean Problem, Cinderumpelstiltskin, The Tortoise and the Hair, The Stinky Cheese Man, and The Boy Who Cried "Cow Patty." Interestingly enough, after finishing the book, I realized that there was no specific story for The Boy Who Cried "Cow Patty" and even tried counting back to page 52 to see if there was a story, but page 52 simply lands on a picture of a cow in the middle of the story about the Stinky Cheese Man, which I thought was interesting, but also couldn't figure it out. 

Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith make this book a strange and slightly dark one with their illustrations that are absolutely bizarre. My favorite illustration has to be the one in the story of The Really Ugly Duckling, where six "normal-looking" ducks surround a crazy-eyed duck with red speckles on his belly and his tongue hanging out of his mouth and mismatched crazy eyes. It really, to me, sums up the craziness that takes place in these pages and how ridiculous of stories Scieszka and Smith created. This then makes me upset that Dr. Johnson told our class about how the two of them were in the midst of a giant feud and weren't working together anymore. What a sad occurrence for the writing of fractured fairytales. 


This book is one of the first ones that I have observed the text and illustrations playing equal roles in creating and fleshing out the story. Without the strangeness and silly language, the pictures lack meaning. However, without the crazy and almost Tim Burton-like illustrations throughout the book, the text would not jump off the page as it seems to do when next to the illustrations. 


As for my opinion on the book, I admire the type of story that Sciezska and Smith set out to write and think that they are staples in any classroom library to show children the sort of differences between fairytales and fractured fairytales as well as encouraging children to embrace their imagination. However, when it comes to personal preferences for fairytale (or fractured tale) collections that I enjoy reading, this was not necessarily my cup of tea and never has been. Even though I genuinely thought certain stories (like The Really Ugly Duckling) were fantastic, as an entire collection, I wasn't the biggest fan. I do, however, particularly because of this class, recognize this book's place in literature. I also realize that my classroom library cannot simply be constructed of books that I adore because although that would include books, it would be limiting my children to books that only I like and not exposing them to a wide-enough array of literature. However, I think those thoughts have gotten stronger and stronger since studying censorship - just me drawing connections between concepts!