Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Stinky Cheese Man [Book Review]

Full title "The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales" is a book written and illustrated by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith respectively. It was published in 1992.

This is one of those novelty books. Remember back when I was reading those? I had the itch again and went looking for a new one. This book jumped out at me, and I ordered myself a copy.

The idea here is that Jack (the one from "Jack and the Beanstalk") decides to write stupid versions of old fairy tales. The problem is that the book is coming into existence live right in your hands, all the characters are self-aware that they are in a book, and the stories themselves are really terrible... on purpose. Reading this book is like experiencing a train wreck. It all happens at one time, and there is no way to really stop it from happening.

For example, in "Chicken Licken," it isn't the sky that's falling; it's the table of contents that is falling down on top of everyone. Another example is "The Really Ugly Duckling," which is about a duck who is actually an ugly duck. That's it. He's just really ugly and isn't a swan. It's stupid.

The titular character The Stinky Cheese Man was actually a take on "The Gingerbread Man." The main difference here was that he was so stinky, nobody wanted to chase him... so he was just running away for nothing.

Characters in this book are so aware that this is all happening that they often protest that they have to be there at all. Jack is constantly trying to round them up and get them to do what he wants them to do. Sometimes they cooperate, and other times they revolt. The Giant in particular will flat-out not listen, but that makes sense since he is Jack's main antagonist.

All in all, this book is a complete disaster, but it is also really funny. I was impressed with how it utterly destroys the fourth wall. It's also a quick read, being there are only fifty pages and most of them are pictures... or just blank pages that the characters might complain about. It's all over the place.

Either way, I do recommend the book. It's pretty easy to find and would probably make a good book for your coffee table. Check this one out.

This blog was written on December 8, 2025.

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