Mr Stink

AHlovesbooks - Book Review: Mr Stink by David Walliams This book is really stinky, it would smell so much that you would have to put it in the bin, and then bury the bin and get it thrown off the edge of the earth! If you like stinks then Mr. Stink, by David Walliams is the book for you. Mr Stink and Chloe have a great friendship but Chloe has some problems at, home and her mum and dad don't get along with each other. Mr Stink lives on the bench by the side of the road. And Chloe's parents don't know Chloe's talking to Mr Stink! What's going to happen? Chloe invites her friend to have a play date in her shed! How fun will it be? Mr Stink gets covered in mud! GROSS! This book I recommend to boys and girls, and if you like stinky people then that too. There is also a movie. Mr Stink is a great funny book. I hope you enjoy reading Mr. Stink! (Year 5, NZ)

August 30, 2010
Twelve-year-old Chloe does not fit in at her “posh” all-girls school or at home with her withdrawn father, social-climbing mother, and sickeningly perfect sister. Chloe befriends Mr. Stink (a homeless “tramp” named for his powerful smell) and his dog, Duchess, because he appears to be full of stories and to understand being misunderstood (“She wasn’t homeless like him, but she felt homeless in her heart”). Mr. Stink fancies himself a “wanderer,” and his lack of concern with society’s judgments gives Chloe confidence. But when she invites him to move into her shed, she is not prepared for the complications. As in Walliams’s The Boy in the Dress, Blake provides his trademark scrawly artwork; his images are as caricatured as the author’s over-the-top characterizations, particularly Chloe’s mother and Britain’s prime minister, who both try to take advantage of Mr. Stink. Walliams relies heavily on gross-out humor (the references to Mr. Stink’s stench are numerous) and Britishisms, which nearly overwhelm an already heavy-handed theme that everyone has secrets, flaws, idiosyncrasies, and a unique history that is of value. Ages 8–12.