Guys Read: "What? You Think You Got It Rough?": A Short Story from Guys Read: Funny Business

By Christopher Paul Curtis, Adam Rex and Jon Scieszka

Kids. They think they got it so rough these days. But nobody has it worse than Papa Red did when he was a kid. And you better listen up when he talks. A short story from the acclaimed collection Guys Read: Funny Business, edited by Jon Scieszka.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jul 5, 2011
• ISBN: 9780062111548

Book preview

What? You Think You Got It Rough?

By Christopher Paul Curtis

A Short Story from

Guys Read: Funny Business

Volume 1 of the Guys Read Library of Great Reading

Edited by Jon Scieszka

With an illustration by Adam Rex

Contents

Cover

Title Page

What? You Think You Got It Rough?

Guys E-Read

Biographies

Back Ad

Copyright

About the Publisher

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WHAT? YOU THINK YOU GOT IT ROUGH?

BY CHRISTOPHER PAUL CURTIS

My gramps, Papa Red, has been living with us for a year now and is straight-up nuts. I don’t say that because the man can’t understand anything that was invented after the wheel, either. I say that because one day I’m gonna be a writer and I’ve trained myself to be real observant. As part of doing research for my upcoming autobiography I’ve read a bunch of issues of Modern Psychology and now, instead of wanting to knock Papa Red the mess out, I understand that he can’t help himself. The magazines say it’s all understandable why he lost his mind: it’s because of his father, Iron John, a man who was so far off the deep end he was at the bottom of the ocean.

Papa Red knew, kind of, what it was that had drove him nuts, too. Man, I’d be neighbors with Oprah Winfrey if I had a dollar for every time in the past twelve months he told me and my worthless brother, Chester, something like, What? You little chumps think you got it rough? Y’all little momma’s boys ain’t got no idea what rough is. When I was your age my old man was so rough on me and my brothers and sisters that… Then you fill in the blanks with any story that involves torturing children right up to the point of death.

It was Monday and my turn to sit with Papa Red.

Reviews for Guys Read

[kimjd_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

October 2010 SLJ: Gr 5-8–
Building on the success of Guys Write for Guys Read (Viking, 2005), Scieszka continues his mission to take the “reluctant” out of readers with this first volume of the “Guys Read Library.” For this title, Scieszka invited some of today’s top writers of children’s fiction to contribute a humorous short story. Not surprisingly, the resulting compilation has something for everyone. Looking for a story heavy on the ick-factor? Suggest Jack Gantos’s “The Bloody Souvenir,” in which the Pagoda brothers return to wreak more havoc. David Yoo’s “A Fistful of Feathers” features a bloodthirsty turkey intent on destroying the narrator’s life. Eoin Colfer offers an autobiographical piece that shares how his younger brother was his real-life inspiration for Artemis Fowl. Kate DiCamillo and Scieszka team up to offer a hilarious correspondence between Joe and an author who knows how to hold her own with unmotivated students. While these shorter stories may not have the liveliness of the authors’ full novels, each one is solid, and more importantly, it offers an introduction to that author’s style and voice. Don’t be surprised if students come seeking longer works by David Lubar, Christopher Paul Curtis, and other contributors after sampling them in this collection. Scieszka promises future volumes featuring other genres, among them nonfiction, sports, and action/adventure.–Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA

[kaledrina_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A hilarious collection of stories from some of your favorite authors - don't miss out on this one. My personal favorite is the story by Kate DiCamillo and Jon Scieszka - a series of letters between a favorite author, and a kid looking to get his homework done quickly and easily.

[elissajanine · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book of humorous short stories and will be able to find many ways to use this with my middle school students! Loved the Jon Scieszka and Kate diCamillo story with the letters to the author! So cool!

[catheolson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a collection of stories by various children's authors, such as Adam Rex, Eoin Colfer, David Lubar, etc. While there were a couple of stories that were just so-so for me, most of them were freaking hilarious. I was laughing out loud through most of the book and ended up reading a couple of stories to my daughters because they just had to know what I was laughing about. I especially liked David Yoo's story of the boy being ousted from his family by a macho turkey and Sciezka and DiCamillo's collaborative story that parodies the book Dear Mr. Henshaw. The only think I didn't like about the book was that Jeff Kinney's story was left out of this advanced review copy . . . but you better believe I will be getting the final version.Though the recommended age range for the book is 8-12, I felt like some of the stories were more for older kids. I think this would be a perfect book for middle-schoolers -- boys and girls!