Listen To These Craaaaazzzzzyyyy Titles!

There's a children's author who writes stories with the craziest titles! Just listen to these: The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Stories, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, Squids Will be Squids, and Cowboy and Octopus. This author also writes a number of books featuring The Time Warp Trio, a group of children who go back in time to various moments in history. Some of the titles in that series are: Summer Reading Is Killing Me!, Knights of the Kitchen Table, The Non-So-Jolly Roger and Me Oh Maya. Who is this guy? you ask. He is John Scieszka (pronounced SHEH-ska), who writes books because he "loves to make kids laugh." Most of his noted works have come via collaborations with illustrator Lane Smith, who does the artwork for Scieszka's words. Smith and Scieszka have won various awards and are still coming up with wacky and zany ideas for new children's books. There's another book you should know about also. Scieszka edited an essay compilation titled Guys Write for Guys Read, which featured over eighty essays from noted authors who shared stories from their own childhoods. The Guys Read compilation stems from his personal nonprofit literacy program for boys and men, Guys Read, which he created due to his reaction to United States government statistics regarding literacy among boys, as well as society's attitudes toward masculinity. You can check out John Scieszka's Web page or read about him at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Scieszka where you'll find lots more than I've told you here. And be sure to ask Norma or Cray in the Children's Library where they keep his books. You'll love them! And so will your kids! (Source: Jon Scieszka's Website and Wikipedia)