STINK: The Incredible Shrinking Kid! by Megan McDonald and Illustrations by Peter H. Reynolds

For my Monarch book, I chose STINK: The Incredible Shrinking Kid by Megan McDonald and Illustrations by Peter H. Reynolds. This realistic fiction book was very entertaining, especially the comic strips that are at the end of each chapter. The only complaint I would really have about the book is that it does not have a linear plot line. On the other hand it does contain three self contained stories within it about James Moody, whom everyone refers to as Stink. The reasoning behind the nickname of Stink was not made clear in this particular book, but I suspect that it might have already been explained in either one of the previous books in the series, or in one of Judy Moody books that the Stink series spun off of. Anyway, the first story is about Stink and how he is the shortest kid in his class and how he wants to grow taller, the second story is about how Stink gets to bring home his class pet (this was my favorite story), and the last story was about Presidents Day, and how Stink loves James Madison. The book was very sweet and I would suggest it to anyone not just the third grade reading level it is intended for.