Knucklehead: Tall Tales & Mostly True Stories of Growing up Scieszka (Memoir)

Knucklehead by Jon Scieszka

(Memoir/Advanced reader)

Join author Jon Scieszka as he jumps from memory to memory about growing up in Flint, Michigan as one of six boys under the care of a father who works as a school principal and a mother who was a nurse. Tales of Scieska’s childhood adventures, schooling, and family life are sure to delight readers.

Knucklehead: Tall Tales & Mostly True Stories of Growing up Scieszka is part of the memoir genre. The author writes a personal account of a period in his life through brief, episodic stories. The subtitle of the book - Tall Tales and Mostly True Stories - expresses one aspect of memoir, which is that “memoirs are interpretive accounts” and while they often contain facts, cannot be considered purely factual (Galda, 2010, p. 285). While this book is written from Scieszka’s point of view, he includes enough facts to make this a reliable account of his childhood. For example, we learn where he grew up, what his parents did for work, that he went to Catholic schools, and what types of after-school activities he participated in (Cub Scouts, choir, etc.). Scieszka’s style of writing also helps readers delineate between information he is presenting as fact and more sarcastically written statements that represent how he likes to remember aspects of his childhood. For example, after describing a battle he and one of his brothers had over a shirt, Scieszka writes “So I think it was really me who made Jim a better, stronger lawyer” (Scieszka, 2008, p. 19). Although the book is broken into short, two to three-page chapters, Scieszka’s writing style places the book at a fairly advanced reading level, because of the implicit need to be able to read between the lines.

The book is primarily set in a developing neighborhood in Flint, Michigan. The setting is important to the story because Scieszka’s childhood experience was influenced by the environment in which he grew up. There were many kids in his neighborhood, and empty lots for them to play in (Scieszka, 2008, p. 14). The characters are very well developed; the reader gets a good sense not only of Jon, his brothers, parents, and teachers but also of their family dynamic. The reader is almost present and part of the family while reading this book: going on car rides, dividing up bedrooms and chore lists. Themes include growing up, family, being a boy, and independence.

The book contains old family photographs of the Scieszkas which further brings the reader into a deep familiarity with the characters and their stories. The style of the black and white photographs also helps root the book in a specific time frame. See the two images below, one of Jon and one of his grandparents. The cover is quite different from the images within the book. It is brightly colored and done in a comic-book-style. The back cover features creative ads also in the style of old comic books, but which feature different stories contained in the book. The cover is fun and eye-catching and speaks to the adventuresome spirit of the stories within the book.

ACTIVITIES:

1. Create a character scrapbook for Jon (Galda, 2010, p. 351). Drawing from what you learned about Jon in the book, what might he have included in a scrapbook? What events would he have wanted to record and remember?

2. Create a family tree for the Scieszka family (Galda, 2010, p. 351). What defining qualities will you include to describe each of the family members? How will you illustrate their family dynamic by organizing the tree? Include a story or moment from the book that features each character.  

READER RESPONSE QUESTIONS:

1. What do you think of Jon? Why do you feel that way about his character? How has the author helped you get to know him?

2. Do you have siblings? How is your family experience similar to or different from Jon’s?

3. How did Jon’s school experience shape him?

This was an incredibly fun read. Scieszka’s candid story-telling creates a familiarity that brings his readers right into his pack of brothers and friends and their childhood shenanigans. This book would be an engaging introduction to the memoir genre for adolescent readers and perhaps a good example as they work on writing this genre in class.

References

Galda, L., Cullinan, B. E., & Sipe, L. R. (2010). Literature and the child (7th ed.). Belmont, CA:

            Wadsworths, Inc

Scieszka, J. (2008). Knucklehead: tall tales & mostly true stories of growing up Scieszka. New

York, NY: Viking.

Images from http://www.jsworldwide.com/index.html