Follow That Stench! Something Stinks by Jonathan Frenske

PEE-YEW! CAN YOU SMELL THAT?

NO? YOU'RE LUCKY! HOW STINKY IS IT?

Even if the stink is worse than rotten tuna, moldy cheese, or a sweaty gym sock which has been moldering in the laundry basket for ages, our courageous, self-sacrificing skunk promises to get to the bottom of this malodorous mystery.

Methodically, he moves from room to room. Aha! He spots something suspicious under the bed.

UNDERPANTS!

But these undies smell springtime fresh!

Still it seems as if a stinky cloud is following him everywhere he goes.

"I DON'T MEAN TO BE RUDE, BUT COULD IT BE YOU?"

Nope! The guest passes the sniff test with flying colors. O-k-a-y! The noxious cloud of stinkiness seems to follow Skunk wherever he goes. He's beginning to feel sick from the offensive odor. He waves the white flag of surrender!

"ACCCCK! FORGET IT! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!"

"THE STINK WINS! I GUESS WE'LL NEVER KNOW," SAYS SKUNK.

Accompanied by his companion odor connoisseur, a housefly, Skunk, cloud of stink still behind him, exits page right, leaving youngsters with a good case of the giggles, in Jonathan Frenske's latest snicker fest, Something Stinks! (Penguin Workshop/Random House, 2021).

Already the owner of a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Medal, for his 2016 A Pig, a Fox, and a Box (Penguin Young Readers, Level 2), author-illustrator Frenske offers this new metafictive title to even the youngest among us, who will appreciate the humor of this character who never guesses that the stench is, as all will guess, right under his nose. And for those with the stomach for stinky storytelling, pair this one with Walter the Farting Dog: Banned from the Beach (See my review here.)