Recommended for grades 1 – 3
Though the characters may be familiar, each of your favorite storybook fables is uproariously derailed in this adaptation of Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith’s quintessential children’s book of fractured fairy tales. Everything from “Chicken Little” to “The Gingerbread Man” gets a complete makeover. Fun music and witty narration accompany the likes of ineloquent giants, sassy barnyard animals, colossal cow pies, and enough stinky cheese to go around.
Jack has a problem. He’s successfully grown an enormous beanstalk, scaled to the top, and stolen a golden harp and gold-laying goose from the sleeping giant. However, the giant has now awoken and Jack has scurried back down the beanstalk in the hopes of chopping it down before the giant can catch him. Jack could possibly even make a clean escape if only the Little Red Hen would quit harping on and on about all the lazy animals who refuse to help her with her wheat.
As the hungry giant catches up to Jack, Jack is forced to find ways to divert the giant’s attention in order to avoid becoming an afternoon snack. When he is unable to find a suitable hiding place, Jack convinces the giant that a good story or two would be the perfect way to begin a meal.
And so it happens that Jack begins telling his own versions of some very familiar stories. With each tale the giant becomes more and more dissatisfied, and Jack becomes more and more determined to make it up to the giant by spinning a new yarn.
The giant (and the audience as well) is treated to some new treatments of some old favorites, such as a tortoise racing a hair-growing hare, Cinderumplestiltskin, Little Red Running Shorts, and a couple of princesses who kiss frogs and sleep on peas. Jack must not only tell tales as fast as he can for as long as he can to avoid being eaten, but he must also overcome the disturbances caused by that pesky, bread obsessed Red Hen and a very smelly hero made of cheese.
The Stinky Cheese Man & Other Fairly Stupid Tales, both as a book and stage play, shares with its audience the joys of making stories your own and creating new possibilities for the familiar.