Jon Scieszka

I haven’t thought about children’s author Jon Scieszka (SHEH-ska) for a few years. But just because the child in our family who grew up on those books is now in college doesn’t mean that Scieszka is forgotten. Far from it. Because his work is unforgettable. And popular: he has sold over 9 million books.

Which is why it was great to see him in Parade magazine this week (Getting Kids to Read). Even more remarkable was learning that Scieszka was named the first National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by the Librarian of Congress. Whatever that means exactly, it sounds important and well-deserved.

If you have children, please consider adding Scieszka’s books to their diet. Even if you don’t have children, please consider adding some of the books to your own book pile. Your life could be better for it.

To get a complete listing of his books, and to get a real sense of the intelligent originality and playfulness that continue to make kids and adults laugh, visit Jon Scieszka Worldwide. This is absolutely one of the most fun sites on the Web. Also, as Scieszka talks about in Parade, one of his missions is to get boys to read. For more about this, see his site Guys Read.

Where to start with Scieszka books? Well, in our family, the Time Warp Trio books were popular. And I gather that The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs is considered a signature book. But for me nothing beats The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Fairy Tales (illustrated by Lane Smith).  This is a completely crazy reworking of the standards, a book I read out loud way more times than I had to, simply because it cracked me up, laughing out loud, every time I did. Also, this fall Scieszka published an autobiography for kids, Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Almost True Stories of Growing up Scieszka.

Thank you, Jon Scieszka.