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October 03, 2008
The Latest Round of TOON Books, Part 2: Stinky by Eleanor Davis
It’s a book with the word “stinky” written in big yellow block letters on the cover. What more do you need to know? My 8-year-old godson saw it on the couch the other morning and shouted, “Stinky? What’s this? Can I read it?” Then he sat down and read it from cover-to-cover without waiting for an answer.
Stinky by Eleanor Davis is about a monster, Stinky, who loves pickled onions and his swamp and the possums that live in the possum tree. What Stinky doesn’t love is kids. Kids eat apples and don’t like bugs and take baths (“It makes me so mad!”). When a boy, Nick, enters Stinky’s swamp, Stinky decides to get rid of him. In many ways, this is a stock story: we’ve seen monsters who are afraid of children; we’ve seen characters who have to face their prejudices and fears. What we haven’t seen is Davis, who tells her story with engaging art and a light touch. Stinky, a purple monster with pink ears and yellow horns is less scary and just as engaging as Mo Willem’s Leondardo the Terrible Monster. His face trebles between anger, worry, fear, and horror as he follows freckle-faced Nick through the swamp. Stinky tries to get rid of Nick, but he can’t manage truly mean. He puts his toad in Nick’s path to scare him, he hides Nick’s hammer, he puts on a sheet and pretends he’s a ghost. Nick barely notices. Finally, in frustration, Stinky kicks Nick’s hat down a bottomless pit. Then he learns that it was Nick’s lucky hat, the one his father gave him. WHAT HAS STINKY DONE??? The mix of sweet and sour is perfect. Eleanor, please write more of these. Now. Thanks.
Books mentioned:
Davis, Eleanor. Stinky. NY: RAW Junior, LLC, 2008. (HC: 9780979923845)
Willems, Mo. Leonardo the Terrible Monster. NY: Hyperion, 2005. (HC: 9780786852949)
Posted by adrienne at October 3, 2008 07:34 AM