The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales

1992 · Book · Jon Scieszka, Lane Smith, John Glore

“Once upon a time Chicken Licken was standing around when a piece of something fell on her head.”

The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales is the ultimate in fractured fairy tales. Not only do the characters create their own stories, they also design the structure of the book itself. Classic fairy tales are deconstructed and rewritten with different but recognizable names, such as The Princess and the Bowling Ball, The Really Ugly Duckling, The Tortoise and the Hair and Chicken Licken. These stories and their characters intersect and create a mish-mash of narratives. Scieszka also mocks the conventions of books in general; the title page, dedication, and even the public information page have all been deconstructed. For example, Scieszka sneaks in the line “Anyone caught telling these fairly stupid tales will be visited, in person, by the Stinky Cheese Man” on the publication data page. by Jon Scieszka, Lane Smith