Welcome to Smellville (Garbage Pail Kids Series #1)

by R. L. Stine, Jordan Fisher (Read by), Dascha Polanco (Read by), Joniece Abbott-Pratt (Read by), James Murray (Read by)

Overview

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

Welcome to the town of Smellville, where a dozen 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 series from bestselling author R. L. Stine, the Garbage Pail Kids—from Adam Bomb to Brainy Janie—get into mischief at their middle school, all while battling bullies and their archenemies, Penny and Parker Perfect. These all-new stories are sure to amuse, entertain, and blow away listeners of all ages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781799939542
Publisher:	Blackstone Publishing
Publication date:	09/29/2020
Series:	R. L. Stine's Garbage Pail Kids Series , #1
Sales rank:	1,089,718
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 5.40(h) x 0.50(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 thirty-two 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, Dangerous Girls, and Just Beyond. Stine lives in New York City with his wife, Jane, an editor and publisher.

Jordan Fisher is a multifaceted artist whose talent knows no boundaries. Jordan can most recently be seen in the Netflix dance comedy Work It, opposite Sabrina Carpenter and Liza Koshy and the fandom sequel To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, starring alongside Noah Centineo and Lana Condor. Musically, Jordan has cracked the Top 40 with his original music and collaborated with artists such as Lin-Manuel Miranda, subsequently joining the cast of the Tony Award–winning musical Hamilton.

Dascha Polanco, born in the Dominican Republic and raised in Brooklyn, is best known for her SAG Award–winning performance as Dayanara Diaz in the Netflix hit show Orange Is the New Black. Recently, Dascha can be seen in Ava DuVernay’s Emmy Award–winning Netflix series When They See Us and Ryan Murphy’s FX anthology series The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Her upcoming work includes Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Feature Film Project In the Heights.

Joniece Abbott-Pratt, AudioFile Earphones Award winner, has narrated many audiobooks for children/young adult, fantasy, and personal development. With an MFA in acting from the University of Iowa, Joniece has performed on regional theater stages across the country, including the Public Theater in New York City. She has also appeared on television shows, including The Good Fight, Law and Order: SVU, Luke Cage, and Blindspot, and has voiced commercials and projects for US Bank, Johnson & Johnson, and others.

Ramón de Ocampo, a graduate of the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, has been seen on television, film, and stages worldwide. He has won the Obie Award for his stage work and eleven AudioFile Earphones Awards for his narration.

Andrew Eiden, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, is an actor and voice artist. He has been acting since the age of four, working at regional theaters including La Mirada Theatre, the Glendale Center Theatre, and the Pasadena Playhouse. He has starred in dozens of national commercials, guest-spotted on numerous television shows, and has been a series regular on three programs: Discovery Channel’s Outward Bound, Disney Channel’s Movie Surfers, and most notably ABC’s Complete Savages

Bradford Hastings is a voice talent and audiobook narrator.

Kirby Heyborne is an accomplished actor, musician, and comedian. He has received critical acclaim for his starring roles in the award-winning World War II drama Saints and Soldiers, the lighthearted family comedy The R.M., the award-winning boy-band mockumentary The Sons of Provo, and the award-winning quixotic comedy Pirates of the Great Salt Lake. He has had starring roles in thirteen features and many short films. Kirby has also appeared on the WB's Everwood and many national commercials. Recently, Kirby was seen as a recurring character on the hit FOX sitcom Free Ride.

Kirby has received a number of AudioFile Earphones Awards for excellence in audiobook narration. He has narrated such titles as Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, Black Swan Green by David Mitchell, Breathers by S. G. Browne, and The Genius by Jesse Kellerman. Kirby is a cofounder and director of the celebrated Los Angeles-based improv comedy group The Society. Also a successful musician, Kirby has released four solo albums and has had his music featured in many films. Kirby has delighted audiences across the country with his ability to blend heart-warming stories, beautiful music, and comedic wit.

Jim Meskimen is a stage, film, and television actor who has appeared in many well-known movies and television shows. He acted in Apollo 13 and Frost/Nixon, both of which were nominated for Best Picture Oscars. He is the winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award and lives in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Tamra Meskimen.

Coming soon...

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