The Skunk smells wonderful and entertains all ages effortlessly

Patrick McDonnell is one of our favorite authors. He’s the guy behind Mutts, a comic strip (and countless books) that show the love, adventures and life of various domestic animals and the people that live with them.  Mac Barnett is the author of one of our favorite books in recent memory, Battle Bunny.  He also co-authored The Terrible Two, a very funny book for young readers that was recently green lit to become a movie. Combine the two of them in The Skunk and you won’t be disappointed.

In The Skunk, McDonnell handles the art while Barnett does the story. It’s a silly story about a skunk and a man and what is really wonderful about the book is that it can be enjoyed by adults without children, by children reading to themselves or as a good night book. Fans of either author will be pleased with the book and enjoy reading it over and over.

The vocabulary in The Skunk is on par with 6-8 year olds can easily understand. Some in that age group might be able to read it, while that same age will almost certainly be able to read some of the words in the book .

The plot in The Skunk is simple. A man looks out of his house and sees a skunk. When he has to leave the skunk starts to follow him. He goes to a restaurant, to the opera, the city, a ferris wheel, a dark alley and even the sewer; but the skunk still follows him. Finally he moves to a new apartment and the skunk stops following him!

But then the man starts missing the skunk, so he follows the skunk just to make certain that he doesn’t follow him again. The plot by itself makes you smile. Now put that plot against the distinctive artwork of Patrick McDonnell and the words of Mac Barnett and you’ve got a book that will be in your child’s library until they have children.

That’s one of the rules in our house. Books by Patrick McDonnell will not be given away to charities, family, libraries or anyone. His books are fabulous, timeless and age very well. What’s different about his books than other children’s books authors is that his books stay in our library, not the children’s. Side note: his older books and drawings are as entertaining as the ones in this book or his recent The Monster’s Monster.

The art work and the story work perfectly with each other. It’s a simple story, but the innuendo that the characters have going on between them is hilarious. The skunk knows that the man knows he’s there and imaging what he two are thinking because of the illustrations is one of the reasons the book succeeds so well.