Radio Interview for StinkyKids and the Runaway Scissors by Britt Menzies

StinkyKids and the Runaway Scissors by Britt Menzies, Illustrated by Greg Hardin and John Trent

Raven Tree Press

May 16, 2011

ISBN-10: 1936402025

ISBN-13: 978-1936402021

Ages 4-8

32 Pages

Fiction     Children’s Picture Book

Britt Menzies is a mother, a wife, and an artist with a flair for fashion and originality. Britt is the founder, creator and the spirit behind StinkyKids™. Inspired by her own two beautiful StinkyKids, Britt is constantly evolving the concept to make it the quintessential wearable art.

Along with the full-time duties of being a stay-at-home mom, Britt is an active volunteer with Books, Bears and Bonnets, Inc. a non-profit organization founded by her mother in memory of Britt’s aunt who died of uterine cancer. Books, Bears, and Bonnets, Inc. provides whimsical gift boxes to courageous children and adults fighting cancer and other serious illnesses. A portion of the proceeds from StinkyKids is donated directly to this worthwhile charity. See www.booksbearsbonnets.org for more information.

Reviewer: Renee Hand

StinkyKids is a charming and delightful series that teaches good values to children, using real-life situations that children can relate to. 

StinkyKid Britt’s favorite day was Saturday, because on that day she usually had a play date with her good friends Hannah, Max and Julie. However, Britt wasn’t as excited about her play date as usual, because she had a terrible secret to tell. She was popping gum and caught some in her hair. Instead of telling her parents about it, she asked her friends to help her fix the problem instead. As you can imagine, that didn’t go so well.  

First, the friends used peanut butter to make the gum slippery so it could just  slide off, but that didn’t work. The friends then tried ice, thinking that it would harden it, but that only made a mess. Max discovers that he has scissors and removes the green glob from Britt’s hair, that definitely solves the problem, but certainly leads to another. What do you think Britt’s mother would say when she picks her up and sees that her daughter’s hair looks like a porcupine?

Children and parents alike will enjoy this 32-page picture book. It reminds this reviewer of Veggies Tales, which also combines great morals and values to its stories, except the characters are vegetables. Parents and children who love that series will also love this series. At the end of the book there is a Teacher’s Corner that parent’s will enjoy sharing with their children and will create discussion. The story is great for parent’s to make predictions with, and for children to be able to understand how communicating with their parents is very important.    

Parents will remember their younger days, as they flip through the pages, when they did things they shouldn’t have. This story is adorable, fun and simple with excellent meaning. However, this story also shows how Britt’s lack of judgement was easily rectified, showing no consequences for her actions what so ever.

Britt’s mother’s reaction to the story was unlike what most parents would be. Most parents have experienced one or more of their children cutting their own hair or someone else’s, yet Britt’s mother remained calm as she laughs at the situation. Parents of boys wouldn’t find the situation so humorous when it would take about a month for their hair to grow back, and they would have to wear their hair all funky for that duration. Not every situation is an easy fix. In this case, all Britt’s mom had to do with Britt’s long hair was to take her to a salon and get it cut short and cute, then get rewarded with a lollipop for doing so by the salon.  Where was the consequence? There was no lesson learned on that point.

Another quibble of the story is that for having a play date at Julie’s house, Julie’s parent(s) should have caught what the children were doing and should have been the one to tell the children to clean up their mess, rather than Britt’s mother who had just arrived at the scene recommending they do so in the sweetest voice possible. Wouldn’t Julie’s parents notice a child getting peanut butter and ice and wondering why?

Granted, this is a story meant to be educational, providing life lessons for children to learn from to help them grow into leaders of good. The story does its job in that area perfectly. The quibbles most definitely do not take away from the story, which provides children with real-life situations and how children can properly handle them, relaying to the reader good decision-making and teaching them good values. This story also shows some of the poor decisions children can make on their own and how it is important to create good communication between parents and their children as early as possible.    

This series is great for children ages 10 and under to learn from and enjoy. The readers will also love the illustrations throughout this hardcover picture book. StinkyKids dolls are also available for sale for readers who favor certain characters and can be purchased through Target stores and through Amazon. This story has also won a Mom’s Choice Award.

Book 2 of this series, StinkyKids See a Full Moon, can be preordered now through various outlets and will be released in September 2011. A portion of the proceeds from these books goes to helping children and adults who are fighting cancer. More info can be found on the StinkyKids website at www.stinkykids.com  

Check out Britt on todays radio show at http://blogtalkradio.com/storiesfromunknownauthors at 6:30pm EST. She will also be anwering questions here and offering a giveaway for her book. In order to participate readers must belong to my blog through GFC as well as through Britt's website at www.stinkykids.com

Reviewer Renee Hand is the award-winning author of The Crypto-Capers Series for children. Look for her new release in the series, Book #5 The Peacock Diaries.