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A Favorite Book

 







"The Stupids Step Out" introduces us to Stanley and Mrs. Stupid, and to their children and their dog, Kitty.

It's a normal day. Mrs. S knits stockings for Stanley, which Stanley wears on his ears.

The family squeezes into a bathtub, but no one endorses the idea of turning the faucet on, because "our clothing would get wet."

Mrs. S decides to wear a cat on her head.

Eventually, it's announced that a trip into the world will occur. The Stupids stop at Grandpa's house, and Grandpa doesn't recognize anyone. There is a meal of mashed potatoes with butterscotch sauce, at a diner. In the story's iconic climax, the Stupids stop at a mirror shop, and they believe they're looking through windows....and they ask: "Who *are* those ridiculous people?"

Throughout, I love Marshall's drawings. The tree labelled "flower." The ancestral "portrait," which simply features a closeup of someone's kneecaps.

I did some reading on the Marshall/Allard collaboration, and it seems Marshall did a fair amount of rewriting, even though his job name was "artist." It was Marshall who invented the title "Miss Nelson Is Missing"; the words came to him in the middle of the night. And we see a similar love for alliteration in the title for "The Stupids Step Out."

Well, don't forget about these guys. Their collaboration ended in the early nineties....but they had been writing deathless literature....
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