Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Almost True Stories of Growing up Scieszka

I teach 4th grade and we read this engaging book during our personal narrative unit. Each story is short, well-written, and kids love them. Two reluctant readers were fighting over the book in class. What more can I say? :)

This is a memoir that I enjoyed more than I expected. Being a member of the author's generation, I could relate to some of the cultural references of his early childhood. Comic book titles that I loved to read back then and some TV programs that I watched were part of his early childhood. I couldn't help but laughing at many of his small anecdotes. One of my favorites is when he decides to order plastic soldiers that were often advertised in old DC comic books and his disappointment at the size of these soldiers. I thought it was funny because I always wanted to order these but never did. I bought this book because I thought it would have been useful to the classroom when discussing memoirs. Although it is not as popular as Diary of a Wimpy Kid, a fictional text, undoubtedly it has some space in a 4th to 6th grade classroom as long as you know how to adapt it.

Great stories about growing up in the Mitten state with 5 brothers in a Catholic family. Jon Scieszka will have you laughing until you cry. For those who grew up in the late 50’s and early 60’s, this is a winner!

Hysterical book! The author does a nice job of making the reader feel like they are present in the story. I used this book as a Read Aloud in my 5th grade class and my students loved it! I changed a few words as I was reading aloud so that it would be appropriate for 5th graders, but was able to get the point across to the students. Both they and I very much enjoyed this book! Author is wonderful!

Knucklehead is a fantastic book for adults or kids. A super quick read, it is among a very sparse collection of books that puts me into tears of laughter so severe I have to force myself to think of something else so I can breathe. A kind of laughter that is good for the soul.

I have read many of the stories from this book to my middle school Language Arts classes. I appreciate them because they are short, sweet, and often gross. This has a special appeal to my boy students. Jon Scieszka has a way with words, as many of my students know when I reveal the fact that he has written some of their favorite picture books such as The Stinky Cheese Man. My students especially like the story about the Scieszka family road trip.

I am very familiar with the author's work and own several of his books in my children's library at home. When I read the reviews/plot for Knuckleheads, I knew my grandson would love it. I wasn't there when the book arrived, but the word I received from his parents is that he sat down immediately and read his way through half the book--laughing loudly--before he took a break to do other things. It's a boy's book, evidently, with lots of belching and boys getting into mischief. I'm glad the author has hit another home run with his books for kids.

Fast delivery. The book was in better condition than described!

This is a fun memoir of an old-fashioned American boyhood. A friend recommended it as a book that would make me laugh. It did. It's an easy read; a book one might leave at a cottage.