The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales

Infobox Book
name = The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales
title_orig =
translator =


author = Jon Scieszka
cover_artist = Lane Smith
country = United States
language =
series =
subject =
genre = children's books
picture books
publisher = Viking Press
release_date = 1992
media_type =
pages = 56
size_weight =
isbn = 9780670844876
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales" is a children's book by Jon Scieszka. Published in 1992 by Viking, it is a collection of twisted, humorous parodies of famous children's stories and fairy tales, such as "Little Red Riding Hood", "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Gingerbread Man". Illustrated in a unique style by Lane Smith, the book won the "New York Times" Best Illustrated Book award, was a Caldecott Honor book, and has won numerous other awards in various countries. (In the 1998 movie Stepmom it is the favorite story of one of the children.)

The book has proved to be popular with children and adults, as its lighthearted approach creates interest while educating young readers about some of the features of books (such as title and contents) by poking fun at those conventions.

The book was re-released in a tenth anniversary edition in 2002, and included a new story.

Plot

The star of the show is Jack, based on his counterpart from Jack and the Beanstalk, who has to deal with the rest of the cast. He also ends up telling an excruciatingly long story in order to not have the giant grind his bones to break his bread. Chicken Licken, a counterpart of Chicken Little, believes that the sky is falling, but it is the table of contents that is falling. Little Red Running Shorts, a counterpart of Little Red Riding Hood, does not want to do the story because Jack mistakenly blurts out the ending. The Stinky Cheese Man, a counterpart of The Gingerbread Man, doesn't trust to be near anyone because he thinks they will eat him when really they are trying to get away from his bad smell. There's a very antagonizing and annoying Little Red Hen, like her counterpart she's a direct parody of the fairy tale of the same name, she constantly complains about no one helping her make her bread, while also whining and complaining because she never got a story like the others. Also in the book are The Princess and the Bowling Ball, The Other Frog Prince, The Really Ugly Duckling, Cinderumplestiltskin and The Tortoise and the Hair. In the first, a retelling of The Princess and the Pea the Prince after years of his parents rejecting potential wives due to failing to feel a pea under one hundred mattresses, finds a girl he really loves and slips his bowling ball under her matteresses when his parents have her over. In The Other Frog Prince the princess kisses the frog who then says "I was just kidding" and hopped back into the lake. The Really Ugly Duckling is Hans Christian Andersen's The Ugly Duckling, except the ugly ducking grows up to be a really ugly duck and not a swan. Cinderumplestiltskin combines Cinderella and Rumplestiltskin into a tale where the little imp comes to distraught Cinderella and offers to spin straw into gold. Cinderella rejects his offer as useless and then when he wants her to guess his name she shoos him outside saying she's not allowed to talk to strangers. In The Tortoise and the Hair, a telling of The Tortoise and the Hare, the Hare says he can grow his hair (one on the top of his head) faster then the Tortoise can run. So they race, and race and race, this story has no ending, the last words of it being "not the end". One thing of note is that the table of contents has a title reading "The Boy Who Cried Cow Patty", which is not in the book. It can be assumed that is so because it was knocked off the Table of Contents when it fell.