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meta-DAD
October 23, 2008
Evidently, there is a monster who lives in the swamp just outside of town, and his name is, Stinky. He is surrounded by his other swamp-bound friends like Wartbelly the toad, slimy slugs and a family of possums.
In a paired down and somewhat simplified graphic novel style, Writer and Artist Eleanor Davis spins the clever tale of how Stinky the swamp monster haunts, pesters and eventually befriends a little boy. Initially, Stinky doesn't like him because he's different. Little boys like to eat things like candy and apples and more importantly they take baths, whereas Stinky likes to eat pickled onions and play in the mud. After a bunch of failed attempts to scare the little boy away, Stinky starts to realize he has a lot in common with his little nemesis.
Having grown up with comic books, and fully embraced the underground movement of the genre in the eighties (including RAW Magazine!), it is fascinating to watch my four year old eagerly try to follow along with the flow of panels and make sense of the dynamic style of story-telling. Sure, this is a far cry from the simple panel work of Caldecott Winners like Mo Willem's, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, or the open flow of Ian Falconer's Olivia, but it was obvious mid-way through the story that my son was up for the challenge. The chapter breaks are perfect for spent parents, like myself, who need a good break-point for story time (so far my efforts have been fruitless).
Stinky is one of many new stories published by Raw Junior under the tutelage of Art Spiegelman (acclaimed author of the Pulitzer-prize winning graphic novel, Maus) and Francoise Mouly (of The New Yorker and RAW Book fame). Raw Junior is tapping into the rich soil of the comic book genre to reinvent and redefine the world of children's books.
Even though this is a bit of a challenge for the younger readers, I highly recommend this book. The adorable illustrations and clever story-telling draws our boys into the page and keeps their attention, as a parent, what more could you want? The only problem I see with this line of storybooks is that they won't be able to make them fast enough for our voracious little readers.
—David at meta-dad.com
Booklist
September 2008
Swamp monster Stinky has a good life in all the wonderful, stinky, squishy mud, with his pet toad, Wartbelly, and other swamp critters such as slimy slugs and possums. However, close by is a town full of kids that Stinky thinks are yucky because they like to take baths and eat such things as cakes and apples. When a boy invades the swamp and builds a tree house, Stinky tries to scare him away. Nothing works - it turns out the boy actually likes toads and swamps - but when they finally meet and talk, each one realizes he needs a friend. Davis' colorful art makes Stinky and his swamp delightfully attractive to young readers. Her simplified graphic novel structure does have some sophistication in panel placement, but the panels' reading order is clear. Although the vocabulary may be too much for the younger children to read on their own, the repetition will have them quickly learning mucky, yucky, and gross.
—Kat Kan
School Library Journal
September 2008
Stinky the monster is content in the smelly swamp that he shares with his pet toad and other friendly animals until a boy from the nearby town wanders into the area. Stinky is afraid of kids because they are so different from him. They like to take baths and eat apples and candy while he loves mud and pickled onions. When he tries to scare the boy away, he discovers that the boy is also fond of toads and enjoys exploring the "muckiest" part of the swamp, and the two become friends. The charming cartoon artwork, full of humorous details, complements the text, and the muted color scheme makes Stinky endearing rather than scary. The simple vocabulary and repetition of words make the text accessible for emergent readers, who will love the graphic-novel format. The engaging plot shows young readers that it's possible to make friends with those who may seem very different from themselves.
—Mari Pongkhamsing, schoollibraryjournal.com
ICv2 Starred Review
August 27, 2008
Stinky is a monster who loves his smelly, sticky, swampy home and he is not at all pleased when Nick, a kid from the neighboring town, builds a tree house in his swamp. Stinky knows kids are bad news; they eat apples, don't like mud, and take baths. Trying everything he can think of to scare the kids away, from hiding his pet toad in the tree house to dressing up like a ghost, Stinky is ready to give up after after none of his plans work. But when Stinky and Nick have to work together to solve a problem, Stinky realizes that just because Nick is different doesn't mean he's bad or scary.
Using a controlled vocabulary with plenty of repetition, alliteration, and synonyms, this is a well-crafted book for beginning readers. As an added bonus, Davis has written a story first and second graders will actually want to read. This story follows a comfortable formula and has enough gentle humor to keep the predictable from being boring. The characters are cute and believable, and both Stinky's fear of things that are different and Nick's blase attitude toward things meant to scare him will be recognizable to the book's target audience. The art is full of detail and the rich colors help bring the scenes to life. The world Davis has created is so well fleshed out that the map of the neighborhood included on the back endpaper is almost unnecessary, but kids will appreciate the added touch. An excellent addition to the RAW Junior/TOON Books collection.
5 out of 5 stars
—Eva Volin, ICv2.com
A.V. Club Comics Panel
August 22, 2008
Earlier this year, Françoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman's RAW Jr. project (dedicated to bringing imaginative illustration to children, and vice versa) inaugurated TOON Books, a series of kid-friendly comics designed and packaged to look like regular children's books. The next wave of TOON Books kicks off with Stinky, a thoroughly charming, amusingly drawn story about a swamp monster who tries to scare a little boy away from a nearly town. Too many cartoonists who dabble in kid-lit approach the medium with unearned arrogance, presuming their drafting skills alone will make it easy to crank out a 30-page children's book (while ignoring the basics, like character, story, and a fully realized concept). Newcomer Eleanor Davis won't make anyone forget Kevin Henkes or Mo Willems, but her art is dynamic, cute, and funny in the best comics tradition and her storytelling is concise and purposeful in the best kid -lit tradition. Stinky is remarkably sweet.
—Noel Murray, Keith Phipps, Tasha Robinson, A.V. Club
The Graphic Classroom
August 21, 2008
Stinky the monster and Wartbelly his pet toad are a couple of dirty little guys. They root and play in filth, eat pickled eggs and pickled bananas, and enjoy all things... well, stinky. The two are wary of the very scary, and very clean, kids on the other side of the swamp. He has no use for the sanitary little buggers; he steers clear.
That is, until he discovers that a little boy made a tree house right in the middle of Stinky's swamp. He vows to ride his world of the boy. Stinky tried his best to shoo the child- hiding his tools, stinking up the tree house, dressing as a ghost- but to no avail. When the boy loses his hat, Stinky finds it and throws it into the local bottomless pit. Stinky's conscience gets the best of him when he realizes it was the boy's lucky hat, so Stinky tries to retrieve it, falling into the pit. It is the boy who saves him and an unlikely friendship is formed.
TOON Books creates comics for emergent readers, ages 4 and older and was started by Pulitzer Prize-winning comic creator Art Spiegelman (Series Advisor) and New Yorker Art Director Françoise Mouly (Editorial Director).
Never before have we seen comics designed for emergent readers and Stinky fits the bill for a kid's first comic. Mixing stink and mud, toads, slugs and possums together with a helping of diabolical plot to scare the pants off a little boy, and you have a story that children will delight in experiencing over and over again.
Stinky is a perfect concoction for very young children, and a good primer for readers who have learned to read and those who cannot yet read by themselves.
The art is delicate and creamy, colorful but slightly muted. There are 1 to 4 panels per page, with small amounts of dialogue.
Stinky is an obvious choice for the early childhood and kindergarten classroom.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Reading should be fun and enjoyable; reading should be a treat for children, a bright moment in their inquisitive lives. Stinky provides that experience for emergent readers.
—Chris Wilson, The Graphic Classroom
Read About Comics
August 15, 2008
The best kind of children's book is one that adults can enjoy equally. Reading Eleanor Davis' Stinky, the newest addition to the TOON Books line, I can't help but feel that Davis would agree. When I was reading Stinky, my initial thought was how much I'd have loved this book as a child. My second though was how much I was enjoying it as an adult.
Stinky Seymour and his pet toad Wartbelly lives in the smelly, dirty swamp. There, not only can Stinky hang out with the other animals and creature in the swamp, but he can stay away from children, Children like to take baths, eat cake and apples, and hate monsters, so Stinky needs to avoid them at all costs. When a young boy named Nick decides to build a tree house in the swamp, though can Stinky chase Nick away in order to keep his happy home?
What I really loved about Stinky from the very beginning is how well Davis has mapped out the lay of the land. I'm not talking about just the amp that is printed in the book's endpapers, but how it really feels like a place you could visit. Stinky and Nick's back-and-forth interactions aren't confined to single space, but different sections and locations of the swamp. Places like the Possum Tree and the Bottomless Pit are exactly the sort of thing I'd want to see in a book; I can see myself as a kid imagining all sort of new adventures to take place them.
Mind you, the story itself in Stinky is pretty darn good. Stinky's attempts to scare off Nick are funny, but at the same time are also reasonable and easily-understandable tactics for Stinky to take. And while the conclusion may be a bit predictable, I really appreciated the way in which Davis told it. It has a lot of heart, and felt natural. Davis also doesn't write down to her audience, automatically spelling everything out. I appreciated that if you read between the lines there's a story about Nick's family and recent changes in it that you can pick up on, by way of example.
Davis's art is absolutely adorable. It's impressive that Davis can draw characters like Wartbelly the toad in a way that makes her clearly smelly and slimy, but at the same time actually cute. (The little hearts around her head when Nick first meets her had me laughing for a couple of minutes.) The little details that she adds into each page couldn't help but make me fall in love with her art, from the animals cheering on the sidelines as Stinky comes out of the pit, to the sleeping possums snoring away while Stinky stomps by. Each page has a nice little touch just waiting to be discovered, all drawn in Davis's soft, warm style. If you can't love her drawing of the little frog wearing reading glasses as he sits under a miniature umbrella and reads a book, well, I don't know what else to tell you.
Stinky is another great addition to the TOON Books line. I'd read Davis's mini-comics in the past, but this is an absolutely enchanting first major work. Hopefully TOON Books has already tapped her to create book- or if not, it's because she has another book at another published in the works, What can I say? I loved Stinky from start to finish; I've probably read it a dozen times and suspect I will keep doing s for some time to come. Books like this bring all the excitement and winder I had reading books when I was younger, and I love how ell Davis was able to bring that back in a heartbeat.
—Greg McElhatton, Read About Comics
Kirkus Reviews
July 1, 2008
Deep in the swamp dwells Stinky, a purple, spotted monster with horns and a hedgehog 'do. Stinky lives up to his name, and the swamp is the perfect place for him: "I love the mushy, mucky mud. / I love slimy slugs. / And I love the stinky smell!/ (SNIFF) AHHHH..." But on the other side of the swamp is the town, which is full of children, who "like to take baths!" When a little boy builds a treehouse in Stinky's swamp, he tried everything he can think of to drive the disgustingly clean creature out- until he discovers that this particular child is definitely a kindred spirit. The entry in the TOON line of comic-book early readers features agreeably distinct, faintly retro graphics in a crystal - clear sequential layout dotted with carefully placed environmental print and sound effect
("BLORP BLORP") to complement the speech balloons. The winning story carries itself on spunk and a controlled vocabulary that combines judiciously chosen sight words (onions, gross) with easily sounded-out words (slimy slugs!) that will have emerging readers in stitches. (Early reader. 4-8)
—Kirkus Reviews
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