The stinky cheese man and other fairly stupid tales.

Scieszka, J. & Smith, L. (1992). The stinky cheese man and other fairly stupid tales. New York, NY: Viking Press.

This collection of fractured fairy tales presents absurdly recreated versions of traditional stories, such as The Stinky Cheese Man in lieu of The Gingerbread Man. Hugely comical drawings by Lane Smith alert young readers to the ridiculousness of the storylines, with eye-popping cows overcome by the smell of a little blue-cheese man, an ugly duckling who grows up to be an ugly duck, and the Giant from the beanstalk eats the little red hen. Scieszka breaks the fourth wall, referring readers back to the table of contents, making fun of the copyright info, and adding types of fonts and disappearing text to involve the reader directly in the craziness of the stories and even the book itself. Similar to Novak’s Book with No Pictures, this allows readers to be in on the joke and the silliness.