His meta, my meta, the more meta the bettah

This must be one of the strangest
kids books ever and what may be
strangest of all, my son really 
likes it. Confusing type sizes and all.
Perhaps Stinky meets the nonsense
standard, and he thinks no one will
ever question him about the content. 
Perhaps he enjoys the familiarity,
since he read it in school and
has a copy at home. Perhaps
the high meta factor with
characters commenting on the
story and the creation of the book
explain its appeal. Maybe he just
likes the (to me) bizarre pictures.
In any case he often chooses to read
it in preference to newer, "better,
more useful, more appealing" 
(only in my opinion obviously) 
books.



Such as Toon Books' collection
of kids comics. See elsewhere in
the blog for why I and my son like
the titles in the Toon series. 
This massive tome collects 20th
century gems from the familiar
(Dennis the Menace, Little Archie,
Scrooge McDuck) to the almost unknown 
but utterly charming (Sugar and Spike,
the Three Mouseketeers) to the weird.
(curious? check out the book).
Strong picture support, nonsense, meta
references, there's something here for
every child-or so I thought. My four 
year old loved reading this with me. 
My child with autism-not so much. 
Which is why libraries are so great .  .  .
He really liked the originals in this 
series though -

Keep on guessing!
-Spectrum Mom