Squids Will Be Squids: Fresh Morals for Beastly Fables

We're all used to hearing fables -- those moral-filled stories about tortoises and hares, and ants and grasshoppers. But fables about skateboarding frogs? Duckbilled platypuses? BeefsnakSticks ? Outrageous, you say? After standing fairy tales on their heads in The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales and blowing the lid off The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, the enormously popular and highly acclaimed author-and-illustrator team of Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith are back. This time they have created contemporary fables that reflect all the bossiness, sneakiness, boastfulness, and silliness of our everyday lives. And the moral of the story? Move over, Aesop, because the world of fables may never be the same.

New York Times Book Review - Patricia Marx

'This book's the best. Really cool and hilarious,' a 6-year-old told [the reviewer]. 'Kids almost 7 and up will love it.'. . .an adult. ..will regard this book as more silly than seditious. . . .I came to admire the sustained spirit of impiety.

Jon Scieszka is the author of The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!, the Time Warp Trio series, The Stinky Cheese Man, and a truckload of other books that inspire kids to want to read. His work as an elementary school teacher and as founder of a literacy initiative for boys (www.guysread.com) drove him to create Trucktown, a crazy, fun action series for the youngest readers.