The book, The Stupids Die, is not one of my favorite books. It's about a family with the last name Stupid, and this family does very goofy things. The idea of people doing goofy things reminded me of the Amelia Bedelia series, but unlike the Amelia Bedelia books this one doesn't use a variety of language. It also pokes fun at the character's intelligence. The author chose to not only poke fun at the family name, but to make the family members stupid. Although it points out that the family has fun, I don't think this is an appropriate book for a class. I think that the author could have made this book humorous without making it inappropriate. I think this book only enforces the use of the word stupid, which is ironic because kids are so often told not to use that word. I would relate this book to the brainless trashy movies that we all seem to find hysterical. I think that the only time I could see using this book was if someone in my family wanted to read it. I don't think this book has any place in the classroom, but I know that some kids will enjoy reading it.The setup of this book is very simple. The cover is a yellow cloth cover with the picture of a kid on it, and below that it says kid. All of the illustrations are done in blue, red, yellow, and green. The illustrations reflect the simplicity of the family they represent. Although I am not a huge fan of this book it is somewhat humorous. Everyone has different tastes, so I know that there will be many kids out there who want to read this book.
I also blogged about a different adventure book on The Stupids and I felt the same way about its inappropriateness for a school classroom. Like you said they do goofy things. Why couldn’t the author keep the humor and take out the humiliation by changing their last names to goofy or what I had recommended was change it to The Odd Family? I believe it has the potential to come across as putting this family down and making them feel dumb and stupid. That was a good analogy you used comparing it to the brainless trashy movies that we somehow find hilarious. It is also like the example, just because sex sells doesn’t mean it is right to sell scandalous books. In this case, just because some kids think it is funny to make fun of people in this book doesn’t mean it is morally right.
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