Lane Smith
The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales
Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith
1992 (Viking/Penguin)
- Caldecott Honor - 1993
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Seen Art?
Jon Scieszka
illustrated by Lane Smith
2005
This is a very cute picture book about a boy looking for his friend, Art. He is supposed to meet Art and cannot find him, so he asks someone. He is directed to the Museum of Modern Art in New York (near where he was supposed to meet his friend). In the MoMA he asks various people where Art is. Each one takes him to a different area of the museum to show him what they consider art. The plot is funny and cute and the child discovering art is charming.
This book is designed wonderfully. The drawings have photographs of various works of art on display in the MoMA integrated in them, so the reader gets to see the museum as the boy in the story does. Some wonderful pieces of art, as well as some unusual ones are included in the book (my favourite was “Starry Night” by Van Gogh). The story is simple, but very cute.
I enjoyed this book a great deal. It was a fun read. I particularly enjoyed seeing the art chosen for the book and being reminded that everyone has a different idea of what true art is. I would recommend this book, although one read is probably enough.
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John, Paul, George and Ben
Lane Smith
2006
This is a fun picture book from the illustrator of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. It tells five stories, one about each of our founding fathers, and then ties them all together at the end. John’s story is about how he likes to write his name REALLY BIG, Paul’s story is about how he liked to ring church bells and they ruined his hearing so that he didn’t know he was shouting all the time, George’s story is about how he levelled his father’s cherry orchard but was forgiven because he was honest about it, Ben’s story is about how he gave advice to everyone and drove them all crazy, and Tom’s story is about how he is annoyingly independent and never does anything the way he is told to do it. And it is all tied together by their various traits all becoming useful for the American Revolution. And all along the way, it’s funny, clever and a little irreverent.
The writing is slightly piecemeal and almost sequential art like, but works wonderfully well for the story. The story is told very matter-of-factly and the speech bubbles are often part of the main text of the story. This makes it feel very dynamic as you move through the book. Each person’s story only occupies a few pages, but you get a good flavour of each character. The unusual format is fun and makes reading it entertaining and rather like reading a graphic novel in picture book form!
The art has the quirky quality that can been seen in all of Smith’s illustrations for Jon Scieszka’s books. They have a relatively unique collage drawing feel that works really well. It definitely enhances the humour of the story. I really enjoyed the way the illustrations directly interacted with the text. The book hinges on the way the two work together, and on this piece Smith got that completely right.
This is a fun and funny book. I highly recommend it, but it’s far better when shared with someone else!
- Horn Book Fanfare - 2006
- Connecticut Book Award - Children’s Author - 2007
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Cowboy and Octopus
Jon Scieszka
illustrated by Lane Smith
2007 (Viking/Penguin)
- Review at Kids Lit
- Review at the excelsior file
- Review in The News Tribune
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