Module 6: Picture Books

Module 6: Picture Books

Squids Will be Squids by Jon Sciesczka and Lane Smith

Summary: This picture book is a collection of “fresh morals and beastly fables” that all some random, and slightly unexpected moral to each story.

My Impressions: I thought this picture book was great.  It’s definitely aimed at older readers (probably 5^th grade and up); the pictures are cute with an almost decoupage feel to the illustrations.  I really liked the fact that they were morals with a twist; one of my favorites was the end of “The Ant, the Termite, and the Echidna.”  The moral of the story (after the ant dropped the termite as his best friend) was “If you are an ant and going to drop your best friend for a new one, you should know that Echidna is another name for Spiny Anteater.”  I love that it’s random, but still makes sense.  I think a book like this would help students develop their creativity, and I'm looking forward .

Reviews: Gr 3-6-The masters at tweaking chuckles out of familiar tales have now fractured18 "beastly fables" and twisted "fresh morals" from them. The foreword

supplies a background on fables and sets up the device that if you can't say something

nice about someone, change the guy's name to an animal. The title is from "Deer, Mouse, Rabbit, & Squid." All four critters are trying to decide what to do: Deer, Mouse, and Rabbit suggest a movie, playing Frisbee, and shopping; Squid responds negatively to all, claims each one is boring and goes home. The other three waste no time and run off to

do just what they wanted. "Moral: Squids will be squids." The full-color illustrations

are typical of Smith's style and creativity with playfulness in the type size and page design. The warped humor and offbeat bits of wisdom often overstretch to the bizarre and stupid but children will love most of the jejune logic. The most popular fable will be

"He Who..." which involves a skunk, musk ox, cabbage, and a terrible smell. You can figure it out from the moral: "He who smelt it, dealt it." Moral of this book: When two wacky minds create zany writing and quirky illustrations, success is a given.-Julie Cummins, New York Public Library

Library Uses: This book, or at least parts of this book (depending on time), could be read out loud to the students and then the students could create their own short morals.

References:

Cummins, J. (1998). [Review of Squids Will be Squids by J. Sciesczka and L. Smith] School Library Journal, 44 (10). Retrieved from  www.schoollibraryjournal.com

Sciesczka, J. and Smith, L. (1998). Squids will be squids. New York, NY: Viking Press