Come back when you’ve written more fairytales. But I’m warning you, they’d better be very stupid. I have the reputation of the Honeybump Publishing Company to consider. I can’t risk publishing a book that isn’t stupid. I’ll look ridiculous.
Leon Stumble is a frustrated children’s writer. Every book he has written has been rejected for being too boring. But his girlfriend Cassie has a suggestion which could change all that: she tells him to rewrite well-known fairytales with a silly twist. Soon, Leon has written five new fairytales – including Jack and the Branstalk about a vegetarian Jack who cures the giant’s constipation and Puss in Blots who diagnoses the King’s unhappiness by reading ink blots. When Leon and Cassie, who has some pretty special abilities herself, take the manuscript to Una Spooner, the publisher who has rejected all of Leon’s earlier efforts, she decides the stories are so stupid they will probably sell.
Leon Stumble’s Book of Stupid Fairytales is a hilarious offering which will appeal to kids aged 9 to 12 for its pure silliness. There are ten of Leon’s stupid tales and, of course, the interspersed story of Leon’s quest for publication, and Cassie’s quest to win Leon’s hand. Every spread has at least one illustration, with the talented Craig Smith bringing the stories to life with laugh aloud interpretations.
Lots of fun.
Leon Stumbles Book of Stupid Fairytales, by Doug MacLeod, illustrated by Craig Smith
Working Title Press, 2005