The Stinky Cheese Man

This story is very funny. It takes fairy tales and fables like Chicken Licken, Jack and the Bean Stalk, The Ugly Duckling, and fractures them. This story is set up like a chapter book and the Table of Contents even becomes part of the story. The words can be found going in different directions - swirls, upside down, very large, and very small. The fairy tales end up being twisted into each others stories and the narrator Jack enjoys messing with the stories and words on the page.

This is a combination of chapter book and picture book. The pictures are made by collage and are very funny when added with the fractured fairy tales. Some pages have no illustrations or the characters have been cut out of the background and placed somewhere else. This is a very interesting book and there is a lot to look at and discover.

Scieszka, Jon. (1992). The stinky cheese man and other fairly stupid tales. Penguin Group.

Verdi

Verdi is a young yellow snake amongst a bunch of old green snakes. Verdi is a bit of a daredevil and jumps from tree to tree and does tricks to show off to prove that he young and will stay that way. One day Verdi falls and hurts himself. The snake has to sit around to heal and begins watching younger snakes do the same tricks he once did as Verdi slowly turns from yellow to green. He is now the old but wise snake and the young ones wonder why he just sits there and does nothing all of the time. He is now doing what he said he'd never do - be an old lazy snake.

The illustrations are breathtaking. The artist chose bright vivid colors to set the mood as the we see Verdi come of age. The illustrations help to tell part of the story and add tho the characters personalities.

Cannon, Janell. (1997). Verdi. Harcourt Children.