Madcap revisions of familiar fairy tales.

Sure we'd all love to be able to go around telling stories about all the weird, scary, and just-plain-annoying people that we know. But the truth is, no one likes a gossip. Here, the irrepressible Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith have found a way around that problem-they just make like Aesop and change all the people to animals or food, add a moral to each story, and call the stories fables! With tales like "Little Walrus," in which too much of the truth is a dangerous thing, the cautionary "Slug's Big Moment," wherein Slug is so caught up in herself that she doesn't see the steamroller behind her, and "Straw and Matches," which illustrates quite clearly why you should never play with matches (because they cheat), the eighteen fables in this uproarious collection are sure to delight readers both young and old.

A Caledecott Honor Book A New York Times Best Illustrated Book This award-winning picture book is a wild, irreverent collection of reimagined fairy tales from the author and illustrator of The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!. Makes for an extremely fun and funny read-aloud for the whole family. A long time ago, people used to tell magical stories of wonder and enchantment. Those stories were called Fairy Tales. Those stories are not in this book. The stories in this book are Fairly Stupid Tales. In this fourth wall-breaking picture book, young readers will delight in the strange twists on familiar tales. From “The Stinky Cheese Man” to “Cinderummpelstiltskin” these unique, hilarious retellings poke fun at classic stories and characters. The wonderfully offbeat and bizarre illustrations, as well as innovative play with typography and book design, make for a one-of-kind masterpiece from two powerhouse children’s book creators. Story List: · Chicken Licken · The Princess and the Bowling Ball · The Really Ugly Duckling · The Other Frog Prince · Little Red Running Shorts · Jack's Bean Problem (including Giant Story / Jack's Story) · Cinderummpelstiltskin (Or The Girl Who Really Blew It) · The Tortoise and the Hair · The Stinky Cheese Man

Did you ever wake up to one of those days where everything is a problem? You have 10 things to do, but only 30 minutes until your bus leaves. Is there enough time? You have 3 shirts and 2 pairs of pants. Can you make 1 good outfit? Then you start to wonder: Why does everything have to be such a problem? Why do 2 apples always have to be added to 5 oranges? Why do 4 kids always have to divide 12 marbles? Why can't you just keep 10 cookies without someone taking 3 away? Why? Because you're the victim of a Math Curse. That's why. But don't despair. This is one girl's story of how that curse can be broken.

Nobody knows why a stray cat keeps sneaking away from his new home, until he begins turning up at social events all over the village.

When the teacher tells his class that they can hear the poetry of science in everything, a student is struck with a curse and begins hearing nothing but science verses that sound very much like some well-known poems.