Spurred by a newfound awareness of false advertising, Stink Moody becomes the proverbial kid in a candy store as his letter-writing campaign yields him heaps of free rewards. When Stink buys a mammoth jawbreaker that doesn't break his jaw, he writes a letter of complaint to the manufacturer -- and receives a ten-pound box of 21,280 jawbreakers for his trouble! This unexpected benefit of acing the art of letter-writing in school sure gets Stink thinking. Soon Stink is so preoccupied with getting free stuff sent to him that he overlooks a scribbly envelope in the mail pile -- until his best friend, Webster, starts acting standoffish and looks as mad as a hornet.
In this hilarious episode from Megan McDonald and Peter H. Reynolds, Judy Moody's shorter sibling truly comes into his own. As a delightful bonus for both teachers and kids, thirty-six common idioms -- from "two heads are better than one" to "a leopard can't change its spots" -- are sprinkled throughout the story; seven of the idioms are humorously illustrated by Stink, and all are listed at the end to inspire a search for idioms that's more fun than a barrel of monkeys.
