The Shrunken Head

Grandpa Spanielson's Chicken Pox Stories #3

by Denys Cazet

Barney itches—he's itchy from the chicken pox and itching to be itchless. Fortunately Grandpa has another one of his famous anti-itch stories up his sleeve. His tale of meeting a fierce tribe of head-shrinking Pooches and a jungle queen intent on making Grandpa her king is sure to take Barney's mind off those pesky, irritating bumps! The story-within-a-story fun of Grandpa Spanielson's far-fetched and hilarious tall tales continues!

Genres: Childrens, Adventure

48 pages, Hardcover

First published December 26, 2006

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the same author of Neo's favourite 'MINNIE AND MOO" comes a book from a different series about a dog and stork who head into the jungle and encounter a group of dogs who worship their Queen. When the dog will not agree to love Her Highness, things take a turn... Neo loved it and wants me to find more of this other series too. "Hello, library?'

[Cosette · Rating 5 out of 5]

So funny - love snide remarks grandpa makes about grandma - and how he gets someone else to do his chores - a little Tom Sawyer

[Amelia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book would be totally fine, but utilizing shrunken heads, poison darts and some of the colonist-based images of the jungle folk harkens back to some incredibly racist writers conceptions of people who live in a jungle. The story without all those elements are fine - I wish the writer would reconceptualize to edit these very confusing concepts to children, who don't necessarily have a context for these ideas without adult explanation.

[Cheryl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Grandpa is a meanie and manipulative. His story is, effectively, racist. I don't find this sort of stuff funny at all.

[Rosa Cline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is part of a series of books of "Grandpa Spanielson's Chicken Pox Stories" but you don't have to read the other stories to understand and follow these books. A little boy is with his grandparenst when he gets the chicken pox and his grandma wants him to rest but his grandpa wants to tell his 'famous anti itch stories" to get his mind off it. So he tells these 'tall tales' of things that has happened to either him or his friends when he was younger. This one he tells of the doctor and himself going and getting kid napped and the doctors head getting shrunk only to have grandpa rescue him and put a tire pump in his belly button and inflating his head back. Then after the story the doc shows up to check on the little boy. This story isn't 'scarey' at all (like you might think from the title) my 3 year old granddaughter stayed with the story all the way to the end and even giggled from time to time. The illustrations are great as well.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

We've really enjoyed the Grandpa Spanielson's Chicken Pox Stories. They are wildly fantastic and entertaining and the story within a story concept is fairly unique. This tale was very silly, and we loved Queen Peekatmyknees. Who knew that cranberry juice and lemonade would be such a potent combination?

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barney itches--he's itchy from the chicken pox and itching to be itchless. Fortunately Grandpa has another one of his famous anti-itch stories up his sleeve. His tale of meeting a fierce tribe of head-shrinking Pooches and a jungle queen intent on making Grandpa her king is sure to take Barney's mind off those pesky, irritating bumps

[Jennifer Oaks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked how it was a story about a young child with chicken pox and how his grandpa tells him a story to make him feel better. The grandpa tells the story about how the doctor had his head shrunken because he refused to be a king. I loved how the adventure is told in a comic book style format.

[Edward Creter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grandpa Spanielson's latest "tail" involves faraway countries, pigmy puppies, a duck buddy tortured by sour lemonade with cranberry juice (!!!) and a huge mutt who wants Gramps for herself. (That's one big bitch!LOL!) A funny book for fans.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good story about a grandpa telling stories to help his grandson forget about the itchy chicken pox. Would check out the other stories.

[Tate Rytky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would have been 5 stars if it weren't for "all the kissing" in the story.

[Polly · Rating 3 out of 5]

kind of scary for my 4 year old

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Barney has the chicken pox and Grandpa promises an anti-itch story to take those itches away. I just thought this story was kind of dull and not one that I'd want to read again.

[Lauralee Moss · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dumb. So very dumb.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this one to the kids. Great fun, I laughed too!