Squids Will Be Squids

Written by Jon Scieszka

Narrated by Mike Ferreri

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Oct 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9780525591108

Jon Scieszka

Jon Scieszka is the National Ambassador for Children's Literature emeritus and the bestselling author of more than twenty-five books for kids, including The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Math Curse, Robot Zot!, and the Time Warp Trio series. Jon founded Guys Read to encourage a passion for reading among young boys, with the philosophy that boys love to read most when they are reading things they love. A former elementary school teacher, Jon lives in Brooklyn with his family. For more great books, more great facts, and more about your favorite authors, head over to www.guysread.com. You'll be glad you did.

Reviews for Squids Will Be Squids

[cheryl_in_cc_nv · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Oh my. I laughed out loud several times and read several to my husband, who also lol'd, even though he didn't see the pix. This should be in every classroom library so those 'sitting in the back of the room goofing off instead of paying attention' kids will have a book to love. And it'd be a great Writing Prompt exercise. Just don't write a fable about a 'bossy jerk guy' without changing enough details so he won't recognize himself and throw you off a cliff. How did I miss this until now? I know that just about everything by this team is wonderful.

[thothj · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Hilarious "new" Aesop's Fables for the 21st century. Truly not to be missed. Enjoyment and words of wisdom for all ages.

[jenspirko · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My favorite of Jon Szieska's wonderful books: This one is brilliantly funny and also a bit disturbing. It has just the right dose of darkness and satire beneath the whimsical silliness. A truly brilliant children's book is a delight for adults and for little kids, and Squids Will Be Squids is, I think, such a book. One of the few children's books that you won't get tired of reading over and over, and one of the few you might enjoy reading on your own, no kids around.

[brandib90 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

“Squids Will Be Squids” is a great book filled with funny life morals that could one day come in handy. The author does a wonderful job taking some well-known fables or lessons and changing them to be funny. For example: Straw and Matches is about how kids shouldn’t play with matches. Also at the end of each story there is a moral; some of the morals are meant for the reader to learn something or they are just meant to be funny.

[dukefan86 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book of quirky fables was a fun read! Enjoyed the accompanying (and also quirky) illustrations too!

[kellylpickett · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another great one from Jon Scieszka! In this book he has decided to rewrite the famous Aesop's Fables through the eyes of a young student who had figured out that you can talk about other people all you want as long as you change their name to an animal and find a lesson in the story. So that is what he did. I thought this book was very funny and can see children finding the humor quickly. The scenarios presented are very relatable and the "morals" are kind of like advice for surviving middle school.

[diamonddog_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Extremely clever fables that kids actually enjoy reading.

[amoore1_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This hilarious book filled with contemporary, unexpected, relatable, and weird fables can have readers laughing no matter their age. At the end of every fable is a straightly given moral that has a humorous tone but definitely holds truth. These are easy for children to understand and can help them see that even through all of the silliness, there is a purpose for reading these fables. The illustrations of this story are equally as strange as the writing. They are intriguing and will definitely have listening children engaged. In my own classroom I would like to read one of these fables a day and then have a class discussion by sharing how we feel that we relate or what we have experienced that is similar to the day's fable.

[lcornet_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A fun and silly collection of fables complete with morals and plenty of humor.

[sadams30 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is hilarious! It presents fables in a comedic way (as Scieszka usually does) and the morals at the end are great! Definitely geared toward a little bit older kids as they will be able to grasp the humor a bit easier.

[amygatt_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a very funny take on traditional fables and I really enjoyed reading it. I think my favorite fable was "Straw and Matches": Straw gets bored and decides to play with Matches, even though many people have told him not to. He finds that Matches is a very bossy, self-centered playmate who keeps making up annoying rules. The moral of the story is "Don't play with matches." I think this would be a very fun book to incorporate into a unit on fables - students can read this book and then design their own fables using silly stories.

[mwflood · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I laughed so much during this book. Should have expected as much, I have come to really enjoy the work of Jon Scieszka. A funny twist on how fables came to be and their purpose. I loved how they repeatedly taught us how much an elephant actually forgets. It was a great running joke throughout the book.

Useful story time book for any child librarian and great for teaching kids about postmodern children's lit.

[finnyann126 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Age Appropriateness: Primary, Intermediate
Genre: Fantasy
Review: This is a great fantasy book that is a twist on stories with morals. They are sarcastic and funny, but still hold some truth.

[iclairei · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Squids will be Squids is a book of very short very funny fables. The authors also present a little bit of information about Aesop. The stories are all quite relevant to young people today, and the "morals" are goofy punchlines.

[shelf3employed · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I just used this book for an outreach visit to 5th graders in public schools. I read my favorite fable, "Straw and Matches." Since my visit, the kids have been streaming into the library looking for this book! My own kids read it when they were younger and still laugh over it. "Duck-billed Platypus vs. Beef Snak Stik" is another of my favorites, and my daughter loves "He Who." Jon Scieszka is wicked funny!