Stinky
In an easy-to-read purple and green-toned graphic novel, greet the day with Stinky, a round-headed purple swamp creature, and his pet toad, Wartbelly, as they emerge from their smelly cave filled with rats, bats, and pickled onions, and go for a morning stroll in the swamp. "I love the mushy, mucky mud. I love the slimy slugs," Stinky proclaims contentedly. But on the other side of the swamp is a town, a place with human kids who like to take baths and who don't like smelly monsters. Or so Stinky thinks. When Stinky spies a barefooted boy with a red cap and a toolkit climbing up into a tree house he has obviously just constructed, an outraged Stinky vows to make that kid get out of the swamp. It's not that easy. It seems the spunky kid likes it there, and none of Stinky's plans seems to scare him at all. Even though Stinky does some pretty mean things to him—like hiding his hammer and kicking his red hat into a bottomless pit—readers will understand the monster's motivation and root for Stinky and the boy to get together as friends.
Themes : CARTOONS AND COMICS. FRIENDSHIP. GRAPHIC NOVELS.
CRITICS HAVE SAID
- The winning story carries itself on spunk and a controlled vocabulary that combines judiciously chosen sight words (onion, gross) with easily sounded-out words (slimy slugs!) that will have emerging readers in stitches.
–Kirkus - Davis colorful art makes Stinky and his swamp delightfully attractive to young readers. Her simplified graphic novel structure does hove some sophistication in panel placement, but the panels reading order is clear. Although the vocabulary may be too much for the younger children to read on their own, the repetition will have them quickly learning mucky, yucky, and gross.
–Kat Kan, Booklist - I loved Stinky from start to finish; I ve probably read it a dozen times and suspect I will keep doing so for some time to come. Books like this bring back all the excitement and wonder I had reading books when I was younger, and I love how well Davis was able to bring that back in a heartbeat.
–Greg McElhatton, Read About Comics.com
IF YOU LOVE THIS BOOK, THEN TRY:
Emberley, Ed. Go Away, Big Green Monster! Little, Brown, 1993.
Gackenbach, Dick. Harry and the Terrible Whatzit. Clarion, 1977.
Hicks, Barbara Jean. Jitterbug Jam: A Monster Tale. Farrar, 2005.
Mayer, Mercer. There’s a Nightmare in My Closet. Dial, 1968.
Park, Barbara. Psssst! It’s Me … the Bogeyman. Atheneum, 1998.
Spiegelman, Art. Jack and the Box. Little Lit Library, 2008.
Willems, Mo. Leonardo the Terrible Monster. Hyperion, 2005.