Squids Will Be Squids: Fresh Morals, Beastly Fables

by Jon Scieszka, Lane Smith (Illustrator)

Every once in a while a book crosses our desks that makes us sit quietly delighted--except for a few squeaks of unmitigated joy--and this oversized, energized, stylized, highly prized book of fables is one of them. Jon Scieszka has a simple philosophy of the fable: "If you can't say something nice about someone, change the guy's name to Donkey or Squid." After all, the alleged Aesop did it. Squids Will Be Squids offers lessons such as "Everyone knows frogs can't skateboard, but it's kind of sad that they believe everything they see on TV." Sure, it's goofy, but it's also saying to kids, "Don't believe everything you see on TV." In "Duckbilled Platypus vs. Beefsnakstick," the bragging platypus and his beefy buddy teach us "Just because you have a lot of stuff, don't think you're so special." Of course, there is nothing heavy-handed here--morals such as "He who smelt it, dealt it" and "Elephants never forget, except sometimes" satirically prance amid the more heartfelt snippets of sagacity.

Scieszka and illustrator Lane Smith are unparalleled in their eccentricity and unrelenting in their boyish, twisted-yet-innocent zeal. In co-creations from The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales to The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs to Math Curse, Scieszka's wacko sense of humor and Smith's quirky, always gorgeous artwork thrillingly congeal in Molly Leach's creative, exuberant design. We see many picture books that are better suited for adults than kids, but this fine specimen is truly meant for goofballs of all ages. (Click to see a sample spread. Illustration © 1998 Lane Smith, reproduced with permission of Viking, a division of Penguin Putnam.) (All ages) --Karin Snelson

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Humor, Fiction, Animals, Fables, Fantasy

48 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Jon Scieszka is an American children's writer, best known for picture books created with the illustrator Lane Smith. He is also a nationally recognized reading advocate, and the founder of Guys Read – a web-based literacy program for boys whose mission is "to help boys become self-motivated, lifelong readers."

Reviews

[Emmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorites as a kid! This is such a quirky book, with the stupidest (and therefore most awesome) stories and some really creative illustrations. Honestly, I think I read it more for the illustrations than anything else! Reading it again as an adult, I can safely say that I enjoyed it just as much as I did as a kid :)

[Melissa Long · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is set up in a vertical, or portrait, format, with one page consisting of the text and the other consisting of illustrations. However, every once in a while the images and text will be together in a double page spread. Neither the text nor the illustrations are restricted by boarders but have a full bleed on each page. A unique thing about the text in particular; however, is that at the end of each "mini story" on each page is a little enclosed text box that says "Moral" and then gives the humorous moral of the story. The font of the text also varies frequently throughout the story and often changes in both color and size. I believe they made each page to be different structurally in order to create the sense of slight chaos and unpredictability. It leaves the reader to guess at what will come next. It was also very interesting that both the first and last pages of the story give a humorous but educational account of Aesop's fables and his history. Lastly, this book's endpages have depictions of old animal drawings which are often associated with traditional fables, however this is slightly ironic because the book that the reader is about to read is definitely not traditional.

[Punk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picture Book. Fun illustrations with sly humor and somewhat punny morals, modeled on Aesop's fables, where if you can't say something nice about someone, go ahead and say something mean but change their name to "mouse" or "horseshoe crab." My favorites were "Squids will be Squids," "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day," and "There are some things we don't talk about at the dinner table." Also the image of a shark eating a tuna fish sandwich.

Colorful full-page art and text featuring uncommon animals such as the musk ox, echidna, blowfish, cabbage, and scissors.

[Vanessa Neal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is really quirky and funny. It's my kind of children’s book in that I can really enjoy it because the humor is pretty adult-ish, but my kids don't know that, and they enjoy it, too.

[Sonia Schoenfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laugh out loud funny, especially when read aloud by a nine year old.

[Lisa Trank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful and made me laugh out loud. Loved the illustrations and ingenuity!

[Ann Haefele · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an oldie (1998) that has held up well. Reread it after many years with my 8 year old granddaughter. We laughed at the morals and at the illustrations. Would be fun to use at the end of a fable unit before having kids write their own silly fables.

[Ashley N. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I snickered, snorted and even lol'd throughout this book. The short fable-type stories (1 or 2 pages only), accompanied by a moral at the end, are cleverly silly and stupid. As the prologue states, you can gossip about anyone, if you change the names to food or animals. This is how we have stories titled like Elephant and Mosquito, Straw and Matches, Termite, Ant, and Echidna, and Piece of Toast and Froot Loops, just to name a few. What's not to love I say. I will thoroughly enjoy adding this book to my Little Free Library.

[Joy Gerbode · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a cute book of fables for kids ... all about animals, but also about good "morals" for kids to follow. Fun, and funny!

[Pauline Destinugrainy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a funny book.
Isinya beberapa fable tentang kelakuan manusia. Setiap fable akan dilengkapi dengan moral of the story.
Nah yang lucu itu kadang moral of the story-nya nyeleneh...tapi ya makjelb juga.
Paling suka sama cerita Rock Paper Scissors

Rock, Paper, and Scissors were assigned to be partners for the big end-of-the-year Science project.
Rock thought up the idea for the project.
Paper drew all of the charts and graphs and illustrations.
Scissors did the research and the presentation.
It wasn't a very good project, and they didn't work very hard on it, so they got a C.
"You should have done more research, " said Rock hitting Scissors.
"You should have drawn more illustrations, " said Scissors, cutting Paper.
"You should have thought of a better idea," said Paper, covering Rock.
Moral : Rock, Paper, Scissors says, "shoot, it wasn't my fault.

[Caitlen Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is ridiculous. Your child will love it. It is a series of perfectly normal scenarios, ranging from wanting to eat extra dessert to being a bad friend. All the normal people of everyday life are turned into animals and Scieszka adds a nonsensical moral. Each story is a page long and is laugh-out loud funny to an 8 year old. A slight chuckle over the age of 12. Sciezska is a master at subverting expectations. Each story reads as a list of grievances set to the style of Aesop's fables. A pettier version at least. This story can help children to understand framing as well as an approachable way to start crafting their own stories. The art style, almost three-d gives a stronger sense of realism than typical for children's stories.

[Danni Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a lot of fun, though I am not sure I would have liked it as much when I was in the target age group. Readers who are disturbed by morbid humor might find some of the stories in this book distressing (I know I would have it I'd read it as a chld) I would definitely recommend reading Aesop's Fables and other similar classics like the Just-So Stories by Rudyard Kipling, before reading this book, in order to fully appreciate the context of the parodic humor.

[Katie Adee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious. Great art. Had me grinning the whole way through. The silliness is a perfect appeal to kids and the morals (Aesop fable stuff) are applicable to every day life.

[Cosette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written for a tad older crowd, but fun read nonetheless.

[Leslie Burke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loved the illustrations but didn’t really enjoy the rest that much.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really funny--classic Jon Scieszka!

[Jazmin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the definitions of fable and moral. They are done in a very funny and kid-friendly way. The fables in this book are short and although the morals stated are not helpful as written they would lead to interesting discussions. For example, in the Piece of Toast and Fruit Loops fable, the moral is breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Although this is an important lesson it is not was the fable was about. The fables true moral could be that having a discussion where you are competing with someone to be the best, our out-do the person (one-upping) leads to both of you missing out on a friendship because of superficial things. While reading different fables from this book as a class the teacher could help facilitate conversations about what the true moral of the story is. After having experience with fables you could write a fable as a class, in groups, or individually.

[Juliana Pearce · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book of fables to be extremely entertaining and full of satire for the true purpose of fables. This story is an obvious fable, not only because it says "beastly fables" on the front, but also because all of these animal characters are personified in their stories and they all end with a cute, and slightly unexpected moral. The morals illustrated through Squids will be Squids aren't necessarily the usual cliches that we expect when reading a fable; instead, they are funny and somewhat obvious from the cute stories! I definitely recommend this story to children because it has a great sense of humor as well as demonstrating what a fable is.

[Tammy Manns · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genre: Traditional Literature/Fables
Grade Level: Primary (2-3)

This book has 18 fables! According to the intro, these fables are written as if Aesop, the great fable-writer, were alive today and sitting in the back of the class daydreaming! All the stories have morals, if you can call them that. "Whatever looks like a pigeon and acts like a pigeon usually makes good pigeon pie." See what I mean? What kind of moral is that? The stories are funny though! The Illustrations are well done. Brightly colored pages and large font which makes the reading easy. It was a fun read!

[Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Continuing my Jon Scieszka binge for the day, I've now read Squids Will be Squids: Fresh Morals, Beastly Fables. It's fun and silly, but I sure hope that 3-stars isn't where Mr. Scieszka plateaus. We'll see. Lane Smith once again can do no wrong, and elephants are simply going to be late so there's no point getting mad.

[Anne Veronica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that many kids will love this comedic book full of silly fables. The book consists of a foreword and afterword about Aesop of Aesop's fables, each of which has a moral included, as well as several "fables" involving various animals and objects. Each fable has a humorous "moral", but there are definitely real, unstated lessons that can be learned from the fables. This book is very funny yet full of opportunities for thought and it is full of cute and goofy cartoon illustrations.

[Alana Walters · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has lots of short fables on each page. They are interesting and silly to read, at the end of each fable there is a moral for you to read and reflect on the fable with.

This is a great book for teaching morals to young students. It is fun and silly and also teaches a new moral at the end of each page.

[Karin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very reminiscent of Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book. It's set up to look like a children's book, but really it is for their grown-ups.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun read aloud. Modern day fables, many of which are quite pointless, pepper the pages of this book, with a nod to Aesop. The illustrations are by Lane Smith and add to the book's overall style.

[Jennifer Spiliakos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most of my favorite children's picture books are by Lane Smith and/or Jon Scieszka. I love the sometimes absurd, sometimes darker, but always content and I think this one is a new favorite of mine. I think I have to plan a Halloween story time around this one.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I HIGHLY recommend this book, there is nothing like it! I laughed after every single fable. The illustrations were fantastic and the morals, like nothing you'd expect! This is a fun, short read that I think EVERYONE can enjoy!

[H.D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hehehe, this book still cracks me up today as much as it did -- Holy Cornelius Fudge, 20 years ago? I think this will always be my favorite Scieszka book, even though it's probably the weirdest. Wait, those things are probably related, hmm...

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fable book full of humorous, tongue in cheek lessons for all ages. I love the use of strange animals, and I always love cautionary tales. This author/illustrator combo is awesome. How did it take me so long to read this book?

[Haaley · Rating 3 out of 5]

These tales were interesting, to say the least. I think that they were definitely intended for someone with a higher understanding for implied meanings. The written morals were supposed to be funny even though the actual moral was often inferred.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

When you REALLY want to like a book, and it just doesn’t work out? Yeah. That was this book for me. It’s not that the stories were bad. They just didn’t really hold my attention. I could see some kids really liking this book, though.