Review - Stink It Up!

Stink It Up! (Stink)
by Megan McDonald
illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds
Date: 2013
Publisher: Candlewick
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book non-fiction
Pages: 128
Format: e-book
Source: library

They don’t call him Stink for nothing! Now kids can savor a smorgasbord of facts about smelly and vile stuff in honor of their favorite super sniffer. Did you know that a group of skunks is called a stench? (No lie!) Can you believe that in colonial days, window-washing rags were dipped in pee? Or that snail slime was once an ingredient in cough syrup? Stink has a nose for yuck and muck, and this book is full of it: moose poop festivals, mouse brain toothpaste, maggot cheese, and way more. Its pages are crawling with more than two hundred facts, quizzes, recipes, and bits of trivia about things that are gross, bad, and smelly. P.U.!

(synopsis from Goodreads)

When I picked up this book, I didn't realize that this Stink person is a character from the Judy Moody books. That doesn't really matter for most of the book, which is mainly non-fiction (aside from a seemingly pointless quiz about the fictional series of books). As non-fiction, though, it kind of fails. I came across numerous errors or exaggerations, and I can't get behind a children's book that doesn't do its research.

It wasn't even difficult research to do. On more than one occasion, I was so skeptical of the book's claims that I Googled them. And, what do you know? The book was wrong. A vomitorium was not a place where Romans used to vomit. Thomas Crapper did not invent the flush toilet. How many other mistakes are in this book? It obviously wasn't fact-checked.

I'm also not a fan of the way the book encourages kids to pull pranks. In one, they have you emptying out half a tube of toothpaste (which is terribly wasteful) and replacing it with chocolate pudding. Have you ever heard the expression about putting toothpaste back into a tube? It's a saying for a reason! (Basically, good luck trying to get chocolate pudding into that tube.) Other pranks have kids putting whipped cream on other people's property (potentially damaging it) or painting their siblings' faces while they sleep. I just don't think these things are appropriate, and I certainly wouldn't want to encourage this type of behaviour.

The book is full of all sorts of gross facts. They're even grosser if you're a vegan. It's absolutely amazing how many ways humans have come up with to exploit, abuse, and murder animals. The more disgusting the better! The explanation of jellied moose nose has a drawing of a moose with a bandage where its nose used to be; that's neither funny nor respectful.

I wasn't impressed with this. I know there are lots of books out there for kids about disgusting stuff. I'll have to give one of them a try... because this one was a bust.

Premise: 2/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 2/5
Illustrations: 2/5
Originality: 2/5

Enjoyment: 1/5

Overall: 1.67 out of 5