This was a very quick and enjoyable read. I read the ARC (as the book is due out this fall) and will be curious to see how it looks in its final form. It consists of a series of short amusing stories about the author's childhood. Very boyish, lighthearted, and a lot of fun to read. There are stories that made me think of other books (e.g. several...er...pissing...episodes), but there didn't seem to be as many injured animals in this one (especially if you don't count Jon's youngest brother). One...

Entertaining stories about growing up with five brothers in Michigan in the 1960s. What I learned: Don't leave your army guy in the toaster, even if he is a rifleman and you want him to aim a little higher.

I firmly believe that Jon Scieszka set out to write the most boy-friendly book in the world, and succeeded. This autobiographical book has all the elements that boys want. It is guaranteed to fly off the shelves thanks to the amazing vintage comic-book cover. When boys read it, they are bound to share it with their friends thanks to the firecrackers, peeing, barfing, and continuous wild antics of the Scieszka brothers. But what the cover and the louder moments of the book won't reveal is the lov...

I recently finished the book Knucklehead by: Jon Scieszka. This book is an autobiography about Jon's childhood growing up as the 2nd born out of 6 kids. Each chapter is about a small adventure he had growing up. The brothers are reckless,crazy, and will do anything for an adventure (even break their brother Greg's collarbone 3 times). The brothers also love to set up toy army men them make them explode in some crazy way. I Can and can't relate to Jon. I can relate to him because he and his broth...

Is it sad that I didn't really care about his life. He is pretty ordinary and I felt like he probably was just stuck on ideas for a next book so he thought, autobiography, that should be easy enough. I'll take a super average life, add some funny pictures and captions and make millions. Just took a lot away from how great of an author he is.

There's plenty of brotherly love to go around in Scieszka's memoir, told in a scrapbook fashion with photographs, report cards, vintage toy advertisements, and plenty of knuckleheaded antics.

The problem with Jon Scieszka is that I like him so unabashedly that I'm not sure I can be objective about his books. He is funny in a silly but not an immature way. He is honest with kids (laughingly admitting that not only does he watch t.v - uh, ah, hush. hush. but he gets ideas from t.v.) His respect for kids is evident in his demeanor, his writing and other professional pursuits. He's like the relative you're actually excited to see at the family reunion. And this book is like being the you...

I heard about this book at a Language Arts conference during a book talk. Lo and behold, it was in the library at school sitting on a shelf display collecting dust. Obvious target audience: middle school kids. Scieszka tells stories of his youth, growing up middle class in Flint, Michigan with 5 brothers. Amusing tales transpire about the shenanigans the boys find themselves in the middle of as a result of their own "male" behavior. Having a young boy myself here at home, I can appreciate many o...

Amazing. Laugh out loud funny. Reminds me of Bill Bryson's Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid... but for kids.I'm also positive that Jon Scieszka and my father were best friends, somehow defying the time and space that separated their childhoods in Flint, Michigan and Chicago. Polish knuckleheads with amazing Catholic school stories and a deep-rooted love of the BOINK! sound effect from the Three Stooges: a match made in comedy heaven.Finally answers the question, "What's so funny, Mr. Sciesz...

What a treat! The format is so appealing - it looks like a comic book and the chapters are short and filled with the exploits of 6 little boys growing up in Flint, Michigan. Boys will love this book! If you are a boy, were a boy, grew up with boys or raised or taught boys you will love this book! It is the kind of book you read aloud to anyone within earshot. Or you try to read it aloud. I was laughing so hard I had to end up giving the book to my husband to read for himself. There is a chapter

To adults that don’t normally wander through the shelves of children’s literature the notion of the autobiography for kids is a pretty odd beast. You write a book about yourself, sure. But why would you make the primary audience for that book people who think that boogers and farts are the height of wit and sophistication? Fact of the matter is an autobiography written with a child audience in mind needs a hook. Your life, particularly your life as a kid, has to have had something interesting ab...

Jon Scieszka has five brothers. Jon Scieszka is a funny writer. Ergo, Jon Scieszka's stories about growing up with his five brothers = funny. Oh yeah - I laughed out loud. I read bits aloud to the librarians in the workroom who wanted to know just what was so damn funny, and they laughed out loud. But we're moms. Moms of boys. We have to think boys are funny, or else go googoo and end up carted away in a van.And I also believe that Knucklehead will make children laugh out loud. There is fire, th...

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Jon Scieszka is a creative genius.Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Almost True Stories of Growing Up Scieszka is a hilarious memoir (geared toward the 9-12 set) filled with short vignettes about what it's like to grow up in a family of six kids. Six boys, no less. And just in case that family structure alone isn't comedy itself, try this: six boys in Catholic school.Of course, growing up in a family of six kids myself (we were five girls, one boy...comedy of...

This book was full of funny stories about growing up in a family with a bunch of brothers. Unfortunately, the stories are told without any of the details that make such stories entertaining. So it's a book of boring funny stories. For instance, he talks about how his brother broke his collarbone four times while playing. But you don't get any details. That's pretty much it. "My brother broke his collarbone when we were playing. Four times!" That's not a riveting tale of childhood or brotherhood....

Jon grew up with his parents and his 5 brothers in a small house in Flint, Michigan. The brothers got into plenty of scraps with one another, which earned them the fond “knuckleheads!” appellation from their father. My favorite story is the one where Jon and his brother “put out” their space heater by peeing on it. Yeah, that wasn’t a great idea. A close second is the story about how the boys’ mother is more concerned with proper grammar and vocabulary than she is about the fact that her sons ar...

I had to stop everything we were dong to read this one aloud to my students. Even though they are really enjoying our current read aloud, when I read one little chapter out of this book they were hooked and wanted more. I have to say it is one of the best fifth grade read aloud books that I have used in a long time.

Laugh out loud funny. Great for boys who are reluctant readers. Great for adults. Great for Catholic school teachers and librarians.

This book triggered great memories from my own childhood. I wasn't a "boy" but did all the boy kind of things with my older brother. For me it was a walk back through time. Even down to the fort playing war, I lived in an open area, blowing up models. My brother and I would spend hours making army models and minutes blowing them up. Can't remember where the firecrackers came from. Building forts was the best and with all the open area and scrap wood around we never tired. The only roll was to be...

Read the first half of this years ago and never finished, so I decided to listen to it. Tales of the author growing up with his 5 brothers.

Hilarious read!!I have always wished I had a brother----and now I wish it was Jon Scieszka! :)