Knucklehead, Jon Scieszka (Viking, $ 16. 99, ages 8-12 )
In 38 short, photo-filled chapters, Jon Scieszka vividly details what it was like to grow up with five brothers (he was the secondoldest ) who were always getting into trouble.
There was the time Scieszka and his older brother Jim charged friends 10 cents each to watch their baby brother chew (and spit out ) cigarette butts. Another time, Jon and Jim tied a plastic drycleaning bag into knots and then set it on fire, causing the bag to drip melted plastic — the perfect “bombs” for their game of war — until a cloud of black smoke began to gather under the ceiling of the basement where they were playing.
Several chapters end with a Knucklehead warning to readers against trying to replicate the stunts.
Meanwhile, the book’s cover is designed to look like a comic book and features an illustration showing Scieszka in a tank amid a sea of explosions while military aircraft overhead drop bombs.
Knucklehead is the perfect book for boys, reluctant readers and any young reader looking for a fast-paced, thoroughly entertaining autobiography.
In a recent interview, Scieszka said that while Knucklehead is subtitled Tall Tales & Mostly True Stories About Growing Up Scieszka, the book’s contents actually are factual.
“My older brother is a lawyer so I wanted to be careful,” he joked.
Scieszka, 53, has been surprised that adults also are reading his book. “It seems that anybody who grew up in that generation can relate to the stories in the book,” he said.
The first thing most people say is, “‘ Oh, your poor mom, ’’’ he said. Yet his mother, a registered nurse, is an inveterate joke teller who remained unfazed by her active brood.
Scieszka’s father, meanwhile, was an elementary-school principal; he was the one who first came up with “ knucklehead,” asking one day as he discovered that his toast tasted like a melted green plastic army man, “What knucklehead put an army man in the toaster ?” Scieszka, who published his first children’s book, The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs !, in 1989, believes more kids would read if they could read books that appeal to them, including graphic novels, nonfiction and comics.
In fact, Knucklehead is a perfect example of the kind of book that demonstrates to boys and girls that reading is fun, not drudgery.
“The book encapsulates my idea that we should relax a little bit, and let kids have a good time reading,” Scieszka said.
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