Type of bind: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Viking Juvenile
Manufacturer: Viking Juvenile
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 40
Printing Date: September 01, 1998
Publishing house: Viking Juvenile
Age index: Ages 4-8
Release Date: September 15, 1998
Sale Popularity Level: 863940
Studio: Viking Juvenile
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Sure we'd all love to be able to go around telling stories about all the weird, scary, and just-plain-annoying people that we know. But the truth is, no one likes a gossip. Here, the irrepressible Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith have found a way around that problem-they just make like Aesop and change all the people to animals or food, add a moral to each story, and call the stories fables!
With tales like 'Little Walrus,' in which too much of the truth is a dangerous thing, the cautionary 'Slug's Big Moment,' wherein Slug is so caught up in herself that she doesn't see the steamroller behind her, and 'Straw and Matches,' which illustrates quite clearly why you should never play with matches (because they cheat), the eighteen fables in this uproarious collection are sure to delight readers both young and old.
Illustrated by Lane Smith.
Amazon.com Review:
Every once in a while a book crosses our desks that makes us sit quietly delighted--except for a few squeaks of unmitigated joy--and this oversized, energized, stylized, highly prized book of fables is one of them. Jon Scieszka has a simple philosophy of the fable: 'If you can't say something nice about someone, change the guy's name to Donkey or Squid.' After all, the alleged Aesop did it. Squids Will Be Squids offers lessons such as 'Everyone knows frogs can't skateboard, but it's kind of sad that they believe everything they see on TV.' Sure, it's goofy, but it's also saying to kids, 'Don't believe everything you see on TV.' In 'Duckbilled Platypus vs. Beefsnakstick,' the bragging platypus and his beefy buddy teach us 'Just because you have a lot of stuff, don't think you're so special.' Of course, there is nothing heavy-handed here--morals such as 'He who smelt it, dealt it' and 'Elephants never forget, except sometimes' satirically prance amid the more heartfelt snippets of sagacity.
Scieszka and illustrator Lane Smith are unparalleled in their eccentricity and unrelenting in their boyish, twisted-yet-innocent zeal. In co-creations from The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales to The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs to Math Curse, Scieszka's wacko sense of humour and Smith's quirky, always gorgeous artwork thrillingly congeal in Molly Leach's creative, exuberant design. We see many picture books that are better suited for adults than kids, but this fine specimen is truly meant for goofballs of all ages. (Click to see a sample spread. Illustration © 1998 Lane Smith, reproduced with permission of Viking, a division of Penguin Putnam.) (All ages) --Karin Snelson
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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This is another funny book from Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. A great addtion to any teacher's fable unit. Because it deals with fables and morals from the present, the kids think it is hilarious and get a better idea of what a fable is. Even children who roll their eyes at the idea of fables find something funny in this book. The skunk and the squid stories amuse kids quite a bit.
Rated by buyers -
The absurd humour and engaging illustrations hide some real moral lessons, but mostly it is just laugh-out-loud funny. I do not understand why there are no other ratings. If you liked the Stinky Cheese Man, you will certainly love this collection of fables. I gave a copy to a co-worker when her very first child was born, and she still calls me "spanking head". If you didn't like the Stinky cheese man, than you had best stay away, because you are most likely a squid. Or at least a slug.
Rated by buyers 
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I read a good book called Squids will be Squids. It's a picture book by Jon Sckiezca and Lane smith.If you like funny, goofy books Squids will be squids is for you.
This wonderful book is a book of many different short stories, each one page long. One of the short stories is squids will be squies. Each of the stories have the moral written in parentheses. The morals are also funny. For example the squids will be squids one is about four animals that all agree on what to do, well three of them agree. The squid is being difficult. In the the parentheses the moral is,. ''squids will be squids!'' I highly recommend this book if you like funny stories.Its very good andI think you'll like it.
Rated by buyers 
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This book has beautiful pictures. The situations are ones that kids can relate to - and offer an opportunity for kids to learn some appropriate behaviors in difficult situations. Then they follow it up with a moral that is pointless. I am disappointed in the book.
Rated by buyers -
Those of us who remember Jon Sciezka and Lane Smith as the author and illustrator of "The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!" will know exactly what they are getting into when they pick up "Squids Will Be Squids: Fresh Morals, Beastly Fables." The thesis here is that even before Aesop a legion of storytellers have told stories about annoying, weird, pain-in-the-neck people, turned them into animals, added a moral, and thereby changed rude gossip and bad jokes into fables. The idea here is present a collection of fables that Aesop might be telling if he was alive today. The moral, according to Sciezka and Smith, is that "If you can't say something nice about someone, change the guy's name to Donkey or Squid."
What young readers will find in these inventive fables are not lessons about necessity being the mother of invention or look before you leap, but more practical concerns for the modern world such as do not believe everything you see on TV, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and just because you have a lot of stuff do not think you are so special. Some of the fables you need to think about to get to the real point, such as the moral "Don't play with matches," which is really about something even worse than matches (i.e., people you are warned to stay away from). Throughout the book you will find a constant onslaught of wicked humour (the grasshopper's history assignment is priceless) and even if it over the heads of many young readers, they will understand the jokes down the road when they return to this book. After all, the morals of fables are supposed to be timeless, even if they were just made up for this 1998 book.
Most of the stories are told about animals, from frogs and squids to elephants and slugs, but there are also stories involving things like a tongue and a BeefSnakStik (complete with registered trademark). Smith's illustrations are creative and his wife, Molly Leach, provides the exotic design for the book, which will provide appropriate visual stimuli to go with all the morals. The end result is that "Squids Will Be Squids" tells contemporary fables in a contemporary way, and if you have a complaint about the use "squids" as the plural for "squid," then remember to read the fine print of this tongue-in-cheek volume (okay, in the fable about the hand, foot and tongue the tongue is obvious out of the cheek, but that is a different point entirely). Young readers will no doubt be inspired to come up with their own fables, and this book even includes solid advice on how to do that as well.
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