In the Scieszka household, that would be a compliment! So, after my whole "boys and books" post, I thought I would give a quick review of Jon Scieszka's autobiography (for kids... it's a whopping 106 pages): Knucklhead: Tall Tales and Mostly True Stories About Growing Up Scieszka. In a word: hilarious. Seriously, I laughed out loud every single chapter. And at 2-3 pages per chapter, that's a lot of laughing!
I know I've mentioned Scieszka's perfect way of reaching reluctant boy readers, so I'll try to keep my fawning to a minimum. But this book is great, and it gives insight into how the man could have a crazy enough brain to think up the Stinky Cheese Man! The short chapters are a plus for reluctant readers, as are the laugh out loud funny stories of what it was like growing up with six boys in one house. To give you an idea, one chapter is called "Crossing Swords", and it describes what happens when you send multiple boys to use the bathroom at the same time. Oh yes, there's plenty of bodily function humor! There's also lighting things on fire, picking on the younger siblings, school trouble, and tales of brotherly "love". And there is love... you get the sense that the Scieszka parents cared about all six boys and taught them how to be pretty good kids, while at the same time, letting boys be boys. There's that fine line of teaching kids right and wrong behaviors, but also giving them room to be the way they were made to be. Loved it!
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