What is it?
The Really Ugly Duckling
Who wrote it?
Jon Scieszka
illustrated by Lane Smith
illustrated by Lane Smith
Where can it be
found?
The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales
Adaptation?
Yes, a very different ending to Hans Christian Andersen’s
version.
My thoughts in
exactly 10 words:
A brilliantly brief and hilarious spin on Andersen’s renowned
sentimentality.
Extended thoughts:
Firstly, This book is brilliant and should be a part of
anyone’s collection. I nearly just reviewed it as a picture book, but I knew it
would all be over too quickly so I thought I’d drag it out by doing a handful
of Fairytale Friday posts. It deserves it.
The Stinky Cheese Man is a delightfully irreverent parody of
fairy tales, conventions in storytelling, book construction, and reader
expectations in general. You’ll hear more from me about other stories as I post
them on future Fridays, but for now, we’ll talk about The Really Ugly Duckling.
First page of the story: The set up. It begins as this type
of tale usually does, with ‘Once Upon A Time’. It explains fairly succinctly what
many of us would know from our previous readings of Andersen’s tale, that one
duckling from a family of many is really ugly. Only in this version, he is not
at all concerned with insults because he expects to become a beautiful swan, as
if he had read the story we know for himself.
Then we turn the page… I’ve used the image below to show my
favourite quote too. The image is fantastic. I love Lane Smith's work!
Favourite Quote:
Moral of the story in
my own words:
Learn to love yourself, it’s all you’ve got, and may be all
you ever have.
Find it on Goodreads
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