KNUCKLEHEAD: TALL TALES & MOSTLY TRUE STORIES ABOUT GROWING UP SCIESZKA; Jon Scieszka; New York: Viking, 2008. 106pp.
Knucklehead is just about what you would expect from Jon Scieszka, National Ambassador for Young People's Literature and world-class knucklehead. This memoir of his boyhood in the fifties should not only appeal to kids (probably mostly boys) but to anyone who grew up during those years. Bathroom humor abounds, as do stories of homemade games like Ghost Rider and Slaughterball (a sport that makes rugby look like chicken feed). As anyone knows who has read any of his books from Squids will be Squids to The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, Jon Scieszka is a very funny man (and in person, even more so). In this book we see also the value of a loving family where boys could very much be boys, and the rich inner life of children could find full play in books read, games invented, practical jokes played, and brotherhood forged. Great fun.
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