Welcome to Smellville (Garbage Pail Kids Series #1)

by R. L. Stine, Jeff Zapata (Illustrator), Joe Simko (Illustrator)

Overview

An instant New York Times bestseller!

Goosebumps creator R.L. Stine teams up with the pop-culture phenomenon Garbage Pail Kids for a first-ever GPK illustrated middle-grade series

Welcome to the town of Smellville, where ten kids all live in a big tumbledown house and have as much fun as they possibly can. People may think that they’re gross and weird and strange, but they’re not bad kids—they just don’t know any better. In this hilarious new illustrated series from bestselling author R.L. Stine, the Garbage Pail Kids—from Adam Bomb to Brainy Janey—get into mischief at their middle school, all while battling bullies and their archenemies, Penny and Parker Perfect. These all-new illustrated stories are sure to amuse, entertain, and blow away readers of all ages. Bonus: includes four exclusive Garbage Pail Kids stickers!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419743610
Publisher:	Amulet Books
Publication date:	09/29/2020
Series:	Garbage Pail Kids , #1
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	251,126
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

R.L. Stine has more than 400 million English-language books in print, plus international editions in 32 languages, making him one of the most popular children’s authors of all time. Besides Goosebumps, he has written series including Fear Street, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room, and Dangerous Girls. R.L. Stine lives in New York with his wife, Jane, an editor and publisher. The Topps Company, Inc., the originator of Garbage Pail Kids, is the preeminent creator and brand marketer of sports cards, entertainment products, and distinctive confectionary. Check out GPK via social media: #garbagepailkids, facebook.com/GarbagePailKids, garbagepailkids.com. Cover artist Joe Simko and interior illustrator Jeff Zapata are longtime, fan-favorite GPK artists with worldwide followings.

Hometown:

New York, New York

Date of Birth:

October 8, 1943

Place of Birth:

Columbus, Ohio

Education:

B.A., Ohio State University, 1965

Website:

http://www.rlstine.com

Editorial Reviews

"Lots of laffs" —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

10/02/2020

Gr 3–5—Stine kicks off his latest collaboration with the Garbage Pail Kids at Smellville Middle School. The Kids manage to survive the pitfalls of middle school but have somehow tipped off Peter and Patty Perfect. The Perfect parents take an interest in the Garbage Pail Kids' parentless state and decide to do something about it. The Kids are challenged to come up with their own choice for parents before they are forced into the parent choice made by the bossy Perfect family. With characters like Junkfood John, Rob Slob, and Cranky Frankie, this will appeal to kids with the corniest sense of humor. While flat characters, lack of diversity, and the flippant plot will turn off many readers, fans of Dan Gutman's "My Weird School" series or Dav Pilkey's "Captain Underpants" may appreciate the zany humor. Black-and-white illustrations peppered through the narrative enhance the tale. Extras such as Brainy Janey's history quiz and superhero comics by Johnny Pantsfalldown lend a little variety to the text. VERDICT A secondary purchase if one has a large crowd of zany schoolhouse series fans.—Julie Shatterly, W. A. Bess Elem. Sch., Gastonia, NC

School Library Journal

2020-09-01
Ten children chosen from a teeming crew of trading-card characters with personal-hygiene issues shamble into print.

Parodying the Cabbage Patch Kids and subject since the 1980s to various expansions and reboots, the chubby-cheeked characters—all paper white in the monochrome cast list and frequent illustrations—bear suggestive names like Luke Puke, Rob Slob, and Babbling Brooke; exhibit gross and slovenly behavior; and live together in appalling filth. With all this built-in child appeal, who better to present their misadventures in prose than Stine, the creator of the redolent Rotten School series (and one or two others)? Here, Adam Bomb (his head explodes) and five other housemates trade off narrative duties in a set of short-attention-span episodes. These feature an all-booger science project, middle school hijinks (“ ‘Hey, check it out!’ Wacky Jackie called, and held up her clay creation. ‘What is that?’ Mrs. Hooping-Koff asked. Jackie grinned. ‘It’s a body part! Guess what it is?’ ”), an abusive Rent-a-Mom hired to fend off the snoopy neighboring Perfects, and, for occasional diversions, repeated failures of favorite TV superhero Jonny Pantsfalldown to nab butt-crack–flashing supervillain Big Bootus. By the end, the Perfects and the Rent-a-Mom are both sent packing. “But we’re not bad kids,” Adam Bomb explains. “We just don’t know any better.” Maybe young readers will.

Lots of laffs…or at least wet and dry heaves. (stickers) (Media tie-in/fiction. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews