Customer Reviews

Knuckleheads

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Puns. Puns are hard. I think that it's safe to say that every adult has a kind of pun-limit. We can only take so many of them until we hit that limit and our groans turn from humored acknowledgments of cleverness to real moans of pain. Of course this limit is entirely reliant on the quality of the puns at hand, particularly when you're dealing with picture books. Now we turn our attention to "Knuckleheads" by Joan Holub, as illustrated by Michael Slack. As I read through the book I found my pun limit thwarted time and time again. The sheer weirdness of the concept combined with the four storylines . . . well, basically this is like nothing you've ever seen (let alone dreamed up) before. You can't deny it. If fairytales were performed entirely by sentient isolated body parts, this is certainly how their stories would go.

Four stories, all held together by a single green-skinned witch. Four stories, all based on famous fairy tales, in which the characters have been replaced with hands, feet, noses, thumbs, and other extreme extremities. In the first tale "Handsel and Gretel" two troublemakers outwit an evil witch. The witch is caught, but escapes into the next story "Handerella" where she masquerades as the little hand's evil stepmother. Instead of a beautiful gown, Handerella goes to the ball in an evening glove with a ring (toe-pazz?) and when she runs away in the night the prince ("Finger Prints") tries to find the lady in the kingdom that will fit the ring. Foiled once more the witch briefly participates in Thumbelina (it's a short tale, haha) and then becomes the evil queen in "Nose White". And even when this story finishes, however, she's bound for other tales like "Paul Bunion" and "The Adventures of Tom Thumb" to wreck havoc everywhere.

I would not have imagined the sheer amount of hand-based puns a single human brain is capable of producing. Mood rings, finger food, thumb wrestling, brass knuckles . . . basically if you can think of some kind of hand-based pun it's in here. After reading Handsel and Gretel I was convinced that Holub had done all she could, and maybe that was partly true. But about the time you come to the tale of "Handerella" and her evil foot-based stepsisters, that's when things go from merely weird to downright bizarre. Now the foot jokes come out as well (though there's certainly enough hand-based entertainment to go around too). And then when Snow White becomes Nose White... you get the picture. But somehow it actually works. I mean they're all pretty funny to read through and the stories hold together. For all its insane anarchistic look and feel, this is a competent series of fractured tales. Though obviously you'd have to hand it to a kid who already knew the stories already and would be able to get the jokes.

The sheer amount of details in this book visually are also staggering. In fact, I had to start wondering at some point whether or not illustrator Michael Slack gave any suggestions of his own on some of these details. I mean, did Holub come up with Nose White being sent into a grove of "palm trees" (oh heavens) or Slack? Did Slack come up with the image of the witch peering one side of the cover, showing up face-first on the back of the book? Did he have the foresight to come up with the hands using sign language to spell out the word "love" while Handerella's fingers do the same on top of her head? Whatever his contributions, Slack's art is completely computer generated, though you might not be aware of that fact at first. The look of the book is meant to conjure up images of classic fairy tale novels. Hence you get some pretty endpapers with a classic pattern on the front (interrupted by the characters at the back). After that, however, it's pretty raucous. I will say that even though the book has a hand-drawn look at times, people who are not fans of computer generated illustration would do best to steer clear of this puppy. It may be a little too smooth for their tastes.

The whole characters-as-body parts style is pretty touch and go (ho ho), however. There's a bit of inconsistency to it at times. For example, why does Handerella's stylized dog have three finger-like ears? Why will some characters have faces and others just have eyes on their fingers? Why can some hands be people while others, like the one-hand band, be five characters with each finger a person? And why am I even asking any of this? Honestly, I don't suppose it even matters. If you can swallow the logic that thumbs are capable of taking a turn about the room on their own little legs, the rest of Slack's crazy logic should suffice.

In my experience, kids deal with weird stuff in books with a lot more grace and appreciation than their adult contemporaries. Hand a kid "Garmann's Summer" for example, and they'll get into it. Hand that same book to an adult and watch them cringe. This book won't make any grown-ups quiver but it's certainly going to be interesting trying to sell it to them. "Okay it's fairy tales only they're more like fractured fairy tales and all the characters are body parts. With legs." Oh yeah. That's gonna go down like a dream with some of my more staid and unimaginative patrons. Basically this is going to appeal to fans of Scieszka's "The Stinky Cheese Man" both in terms of content and design. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that "Stinky Cheese Man" was the original inspiration for the layout of this tale. Both stories break down the fourth wall with great frequency, and they've a similar feel in terms of bizarre content and twisted senses of humor. Clearly this is not going to be like anything else on your shelf, though. It's an amusing ride with a style and charm entirely of its own.

This is one of the most imaginative stories for children that I have ever read; although it is targeted at the older child that knows children's stories and can appreciate puns. For the text of this book is one pun after another.
The foundations of the stories in this book are the children's stories:

*) Hansel and Gretel, now called Handsel and Gretel
*) Cinderella, now called Handerella
*) Thumbelina, now called Thumbellina
*) Snow White, now called Nose White

The characters are all body parts, primarily hands and feet and some of the puns are:

*) The lunch ladyfinger
*) The evil witch with a red oven mitt is caught red-handed trying to roast Handsel and Gretel.
*) "Make me a foot-long hot dog will ya? And hold the bunions."
*) The name of the prince in Handerella is called "Finger Prints"
*) The prince and Handerella being a shoe-in for happily ever after.

Puns and physical references like this start on the first page and continue to the very last. Wordplay is one of the best forms of humor and Holub demonstrates that she is a master at it. Although it requires a bit of thought, it is a great book for the child in late elementary school.

Oh, this book is funny. I love a good pun, and the word play in this crackerjack kids book is chock full of silliness and fun. And the jokes are not just in the text! The illustrations tell jokes too, and the diligent peruser of this book will find visually-based giggles on each page that he/she might have missed before.

Knuckleheads is a collection of fractured fairy tales that features hands(and fingers and noses and toes-es) as the stars of four fables that are linked by a evil green hand-Witch, who makes her way though the book as part of her escape from justice(she was caught red-handed, trying to roast Handsel and Gretel). The Witch, who makes her debut with a brass knuckle and a house made of finger foods, then shows up in a footed disguise in Handerella. After her plans are tripped up for matching one of the step sisters with the Prince(Finger Prints-ha!), she then makes a short appearance in Thumbelina, and then gets her diva on as the Queen in Nose White.

A bit of knowledge about the original fairy tales is helpful(my three year old was a bit lost with many of the jokes), so I would suggest this book for anyone over 5 years old. That said, my son DID think that the pictures were funny, and he liked the book overall, perhaps because I was reading it with my "funny book voice" and laughing at it myself. I am sure that comparisons to the The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales and Squids Will Be Squids will be made with Knuckleheads, and deservedly so in the best possible way: these books(and their authors/illustrators) do not write down to children. They create unique and challenging books that are witty and silly and wonderfully fun to read. Knuckleheads stands alone in how thoroughly the joke is maintained throughout the read: I don't think that there is a hand pun that is left unheralded in this book. Part of the fun is wondering how another pun can be squeezed in to the story. And it can, dear reader, handily.

For those of you who love fairy tales and the ways people take them and twist them around have I found the book for you!

Knuckleheads is a book of fairy tales in which the characters are hands, feet, thumbs and noses. It is by far one of the most amusing picture-book retellings of fairy tales that I have seen in a long time! We are treated to the tales of: "Handsel & Gretel," "Handerella," "Thumbilina," and "Nose White." The tales are quite condensed, and some of them are missing some major aspects of the story, like the parents in "Handsel & Gretel, but all-in-all the book is a lot of fun. The text itself is humorous and a bit slap-stick in nature, but when you combine that with the illustrations you have a hit on your hands! Parents will probably get a little bit more of the humor than the really young kids, but it's not at a level that is unattainable. I think this is one of those books, that, if a child loves it and reads it again and again, they will get more out of it with each reading.

Also, make sure to read ALL of the text on the pages. A good example is in the "Handerella" story, where there's a sign that reads: How to be a wicked stepsister in three easy steps: 1. Step on others' feelings. 2. Step on others' toes. 3. Step on anyone who gets in your way." You may not get the humor by just reading that, but when you add in the fact that her stepsisters are feet (plus the word stepsister) you have comedic gold on your hands. I think kids will totally love the humor of this book!

Notes on the Cover:
Honestly, if I hadn't heard about this one I probably wouldn't have picked it up. The title is in red and in the very center of the cover. I find the title so distracting that the first time I looked at it I didn't even notice that the little designs in the four corners of the book had the titles and the characters of the fairy tales that are in the book. Also, the little hand-vine that surrounds the title is very interesting upon closer inspection, but I find the title itself to be the focus of my attention and it really looks like a book that boys would enjoy just by glancing at the title. (And I do think boys will like this book!)