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Stink
Stink It Up!: A Guide to the Gross, the Bad, and the Smelly
They don’t call him Stink for nothing! Now kids can savor a smorgasbord of facts about smelly and vile stuff in honor of their favorite super sniffer. Did you know that a group of skunks is called a stench? (No lie!) Can you believe that in colonial days, window-washing rags were dipped in pee? Or that snail slime was once an ingredient in cough syrup? Stink has a nose for yuck and muck, and this book is full of it: moose poop festivals, mouse brain toothpaste, maggot cheese, and way more. Its pages are crawling with more than two hundred facts, quizzes, recipes, and bits of trivia about things that are gross, bad, and smelly. P.U.!
144 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 6, 2013
148 people are currently reading
116 people want to read
About the author
Megan McDonald
331 books732 followers"Sometimes I think I am Judy Moody," says Megan McDonald, author of the Judy Moody series, the Stink series, and THE SISTERS CLUB. "I'm certainly moody, like she is. Judy has a strong voice and always speaks up for herself. I like that."
For Megan McDonald, being able to speak up for herself wasn't always easy. She grew up as the youngest of five sisters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her father, an ironworker, was known to his coworkers as "Little Johnny the Storyteller." Every evening at dinner the McDonalds would gather to talk and tell stories, but Megan McDonald was barely able to get a word in edgewise. "I'm told I began to stutter," she says, leading her mother to give her a notebook so she could start "writing things down."
Critically acclaimed, the Judy Moody books have won numerous awards, ranging from a PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Best Book of the Year to an International Reading Association Children's Choice. "Judy has taken on a life of her own," the author notes, with nearly 3 million Judy Moody books in print. Interestingly, the feisty third-grader is highly popular with boys and girls, making for a strong base of fans who are among Megan McDonald's strongest incentives to keep writing, along with "too many ideas and a little chocolate." And now -- by popular demand -- Judy Moody's little brother, Stink, gets his chance to star in his own adventures! Beginning with STINK: THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING KID, three more stories, and his own encyclopedia, STINK-O-PEDIA, Stink's special style comes through loud and strong -- enhanced by a series of comic strips, drawn by Stink himself, which are sprinkled throughout the first book. About the need for a book all about Stink, Megan McDonald says, "Once, while I was visiting a class full of Judy Moody readers, the kids, many with spiked hair à la Judy's little brother, chanted, 'Stink! Stink! Stink! Stink! Stink!' as I entered the room. In that moment, I knew that Stink had to have a book all his own."
More recently, Megan McDonald has recalled some of her own childhood with the warmth, humor -- and squabbles -- of three spunky sisters in THE SISTERS CLUB.
Megan McDonald and her husband live in Sebastopol, California, with two dogs, two adopted horses, and fifteen wild turkeys that like to hang out on their back porch.
For Megan McDonald, being able to speak up for herself wasn't always easy. She grew up as the youngest of five sisters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her father, an ironworker, was known to his coworkers as "Little Johnny the Storyteller." Every evening at dinner the McDonalds would gather to talk and tell stories, but Megan McDonald was barely able to get a word in edgewise. "I'm told I began to stutter," she says, leading her mother to give her a notebook so she could start "writing things down."
Critically acclaimed, the Judy Moody books have won numerous awards, ranging from a PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Best Book of the Year to an International Reading Association Children's Choice. "Judy has taken on a life of her own," the author notes, with nearly 3 million Judy Moody books in print. Interestingly, the feisty third-grader is highly popular with boys and girls, making for a strong base of fans who are among Megan McDonald's strongest incentives to keep writing, along with "too many ideas and a little chocolate." And now -- by popular demand -- Judy Moody's little brother, Stink, gets his chance to star in his own adventures! Beginning with STINK: THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING KID, three more stories, and his own encyclopedia, STINK-O-PEDIA, Stink's special style comes through loud and strong -- enhanced by a series of comic strips, drawn by Stink himself, which are sprinkled throughout the first book. About the need for a book all about Stink, Megan McDonald says, "Once, while I was visiting a class full of Judy Moody readers, the kids, many with spiked hair à la Judy's little brother, chanted, 'Stink! Stink! Stink! Stink! Stink!' as I entered the room. In that moment, I knew that Stink had to have a book all his own."
More recently, Megan McDonald has recalled some of her own childhood with the warmth, humor -- and squabbles -- of three spunky sisters in THE SISTERS CLUB.
Megan McDonald and her husband live in Sebastopol, California, with two dogs, two adopted horses, and fifteen wild turkeys that like to hang out on their back porch.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 19, 2019
When I picked up this book, I didn't realize that this Stink person is a character from the Judy Moody books. That doesn't really matter for most of the book, which is mainly non-fiction (aside from a seemingly pointless quiz about the fictional series of books). As non-fiction, though, it kind of fails. I came across numerous errors or exaggerations, and I can't get behind a children's book that doesn't do its research.
It wasn't even difficult research to do. On more than one occasion, I was so skeptical of the book's claims that I Googled them. And, what do you know? The book was wrong. A vomitorium was not a place where Romans used to vomit. Thomas Crapper did not invent the flush toilet. How many other mistakes are in this book? It obviously wasn't fact-checked.
I'm also not a fan of the way the book encourages kids to pull pranks. In one, they have you emptying out half a tube of toothpaste (which is terribly wasteful) and replacing it with chocolate pudding. Have you ever heard the expression about putting toothpaste back into a tube? It's a saying for a reason! (Basically, good luck trying to get chocolate pudding into that tube.) Other pranks have kids putting whipped cream on other people's property (potentially damaging it) or painting their siblings' faces while they sleep. I just don't think these things are appropriate, and I certainly wouldn't want to encourage this type of behaviour.
The book is full of all sorts of gross facts. They're even grosser if you're a vegan. It's absolutely amazing how many ways humans have come up with to exploit, abuse, and murder animals. The more disgusting the better! The explanation of jellied moose nose has a drawing of a moose with a bandage where its nose used to be; that's neither funny nor respectful.
I wasn't impressed with this. I know there are lots of books out there for kids about disgusting stuff. I'll have to give one of them a try... because this one was a bust.
It wasn't even difficult research to do. On more than one occasion, I was so skeptical of the book's claims that I Googled them. And, what do you know? The book was wrong. A vomitorium was not a place where Romans used to vomit. Thomas Crapper did not invent the flush toilet. How many other mistakes are in this book? It obviously wasn't fact-checked.
I'm also not a fan of the way the book encourages kids to pull pranks. In one, they have you emptying out half a tube of toothpaste (which is terribly wasteful) and replacing it with chocolate pudding. Have you ever heard the expression about putting toothpaste back into a tube? It's a saying for a reason! (Basically, good luck trying to get chocolate pudding into that tube.) Other pranks have kids putting whipped cream on other people's property (potentially damaging it) or painting their siblings' faces while they sleep. I just don't think these things are appropriate, and I certainly wouldn't want to encourage this type of behaviour.
The book is full of all sorts of gross facts. They're even grosser if you're a vegan. It's absolutely amazing how many ways humans have come up with to exploit, abuse, and murder animals. The more disgusting the better! The explanation of jellied moose nose has a drawing of a moose with a bandage where its nose used to be; that's neither funny nor respectful.
I wasn't impressed with this. I know there are lots of books out there for kids about disgusting stuff. I'll have to give one of them a try... because this one was a bust.
June 22, 2017
4 stars because it was kind of gross
November 30, 2014
Wow! I first picked this book up because of the funny title 'Stink it up! A guide to the gross, the bad and the smelly.' I thought it would be something funny to read to pass the time. And I was right and so much more! This book has some really gross and funny facts about almost anything and everything you can think of.The main aspect of writing craft Mcdonald used was writing with short, choppy sentences and a lot of exclamation marks. She did a really good job at using this craft by capturing the readers attention. Although this book isn't your typical chapter book, it's great for students. They would be reading something extremely fun and entertaining to them, but also educational! By showing this book to kids you can show them that non-fictional books and writings can be fun to create and read too. If you write about what you want to and add your own style in the writing, it will be great! This could and will be a mentor text in my classroom for students. I think it would be a great starter for punctuation and to show the students how vital and necessary it is.
October 19, 2025
Not the best kids’ science book I’ve read: some of the facts were a bit off (the Thomas Crapper one being the most obvious but there really is a Thomas Crapper day so that is not wrong- he just didn’t invent the flush toilet, that said, he did invent stuff to do with the toilet like the floating dangly ball thing and he was also a plumber). However, this was informative and pretty funny (and of course, gross). I will never eat peanut butter the same now without worrying I’m eating rat hairs and insect pieces hahaha. 😂 And yes I googled that and the FDA website actually does really have allowances for that because they can’t really get rid of all contaminates so they just want it to be the least contaminated as possible. I have also heard that a group of skunks was called a stink but this reinforced that and I still think that’s so funny lol.
February 2, 2021
I borrowed the book because it was by Megan McDonald, and I'd read one 'Stink' book and thought it was good. It was not what I thought it would be, but while some facts were SUPER gross, others were... interesting.......
Also, it says there's a website where you can do lots of fun stuff, yet it doesn't actually tell you the website/give you the link! >:( -1 star
Also, it says there's a website where you can do lots of fun stuff, yet it doesn't actually tell you the website/give you the link! >:( -1 star
May 30, 2020
I was really good. I learned a lot
January 27, 2025
don’t need a tutorial… thank though
July 25, 2016
OMG...this is such a boy book. Any boy into this type of stinky, gross stuff will eat this book up. I loved the recipes and the illustrations put the cherry on top of the creativity behind this book. Full of tidbits of gross information this book was hilarious. Then, to top it off, there is a game for the kids to play of something like "truth or dare". Absolutely priceless!!
October 1, 2013
Students will love reading the gross facts in Stink it Up! The facts are short and written in easy to understand language. The illustrations by Peter Reynolds make the gross facts even more entertaining.
March 3, 2016
Awesome
This is funny and kind of stinky. I would not want to eat any of the edible insects in the world. Dung beetles are weird.
This is funny and kind of stinky. I would not want to eat any of the edible insects in the world. Dung beetles are weird.
March 4, 2016
Asher (7yo) read. (Asher also bought this book with some Christmas money.)
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews