Yuck's Big Booger Challenge and Yuck's Smelly Socks

Gr 2–4—The two transitional stories in this short chapter book reveal that Yuck is the true embodiment of his name. In the first story, he accepts his family's challenge to stop picking his nose for an entire week, which will be rewarded with a visit to a candy shop. Yuck hatches a disgustingly awful plan for his built-up snot. He keeps track of his mucus status with disgusting descriptions such as "gunky," "stringy," and "lumpy" on his Booger Chart. The boy eventually molds the entire contents of his nose into two gigantic balls that he disguises as jawbreakers, which his unsuspecting mother and sister consume. In "Yuck's Smelly Socks," the title character uses his talent of finding the most repulsive items, cat puke and bird poop included, to smear on his socks, eventually causing poisonous gas to sweep through his school. When his mother tries to wash the socks alongside Yuck's clean clothing, the vile items spread their bile within the washing machine. The appliance goes on the spritz and sprays its disgusting contents on Yuck's mom and sister. Cartoon sketches peppered throughout capture the sheer grossness of his dastardly deeds. Yuck's mother appears as an all too gullible character, and the youngster, completely consumed by his awful interests, fails to demonstrate any sense of kindness. His use of disrespectful nicknames for others, such as "Juicy Lucy," along with weak plotlines chock-full of disgusting antics, demonstrate there's no depth to be found in young Yuck beyond his fixation on everything gross.—Meg Smith, Cumberland County Public Library, Fayetteville, NC