Thursday, April 21, 2011

Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Mostly True Stories About Growing Up Scieszka by Jon Scieszka


Book Jacket

Have you ever:

Had your brother try to sell you your own shirt?

Made a list of all the bad words you know--for your teacher, who is a nun?

Believed one of those AMAZING! ads in the back of a comic book?

Broken your brother's collarbone playing football--four times?

Tied your little brother into his bed with your dad's ties?

Jon Scieszka has.  Which is probably why Jon's dad used to call him and his five brothers KNUCKLEHEADS.

Here is Jon's side of the story.  And here, at last, is the memoir that might answer some of the questions of how the heck does someone think up a story of a little man made of very smelly cheese.

Review

The only book I've ever read of Scieszka's is The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales.  If you have also read that children's classic, then you know Scieszka is hilarious.  Why I haven't read more of his books, I don't know.  But Knucklehead convinced me to do that asap.

This is the perfect book for young readers.  There are 38 chapters, but each one is only two or three pages.  Great for bite-sized reading.  Or, like me, you can devour the whole book at once, because it is hilarious!  Some of his childhood memories reminded me of my own misadventures growing up.  Others had my mouth dropping in amazement that he and his brothers didn't kill each other.

But despite the fact that the Scieszka boys must have given their parents premature gray hair, I am now sure that I want a whole bunch of boys whenever I have kids.  They are a handful, but they are more entertaining than any TV show.  So in a celebration of boyness, childhood, and family, go read Knucklehead.

Four out of five Slaughter Balls.

Release Date:  October 2008
Reading Level:  Grade 3+
Where In Dunlap Public Library's Collection:  BLUESTEM

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