This collection of children’s stories takes classic fairy tales and humorously twists them into different forms. It is worth
mentioning that this book is somewhat unusual for a children’s book in that it features metanarration by Jack. Jack is a common fairy tale name, so this Jack could be any Jack. When the Little Red Hen interrupts the book before the title page because she is so anxious to plant her wheat, Jack steps in and tells her to wait a few pages. The Little Red Hen makes appearances throughout, until the very end of the book. Because we, the readers, have ignored her pleas, she has planted the wheat herself. The dedication page is printed upside-down, supposedly because no one ever reads title pages anyway, and the introduction is a self-proclaimed waste of space.
The first story is a parody of Chicken Little, and it features Chicken Licken running around claiming the sky is falling. In reality, a “12” from the table of contents has fallen on her head. Our narrator Jack tries to tell Chicken Licken that it is the table of contents, but Chicken Licken will not listen. With all her friends in tow, she races to the airport because she wants to go to Washington D.C. to tell the President. They run into the fox, who claims to know a shortcut. The fox lures them into his den, and then the table of contents crushes them all.
In “The
Princess and the Bowling Ball,” the prince replaces the pea under the bed with his bowling ball because he is in love with the princess. After years of other princesses sleeping soundly, he doesn’t want to take any chances.
“The
Really Ugly Duckling” knows one day he will show the other ducks and grow up into a beautiful swan. Unfortunately, the ugly duckling really is ugly. The inevitable and likely more probable happens, and the really ugly duckling grows into a really ugly duck.
The same happens when the princess kisses the other frog prince, and the frog hops away still a frog.
The next two stories deal with the perfect timing that makes traditional fairy tales work. Little Red Running Shorts beats the wolf to Granny’s house because she is an accomplished runner. After Jack plants his magic beans, the giant comes down the beanstalk before Jack can climb up.
The rest of the stories deal with misunderstandings. When Cinderella laments not going to the ball with her sisters, Rumpelstiltskin shows up instead of the Fairy Godmother. When her family returns, Cinderella tells them what happened and they change her name to Cinderumpelstiltskin. The tortoise and the hare’s race gets bungled when the referee yells “Ready, set, grow.” The tortoise runs and the hare grows a very long hair. Instead of baking a gingerbread man to cure her loneliness, the old lady bakes a stinky cheese man. He runs, but no one is willing to chase him. The stinky cheese man drowns when the fox carrying him coughs and gags mid-river from the terrible smell.
“The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales” is a Caldecott Honor Book and features unique and beautiful illustrations.