The Museum of Very Bad Smells: A Dare to Scratch ‘n’ Sniff Mystery

From the author who gave readers Are You a Cheeseburger? comes another fun and rather smelly story about a missing rotten egg from the Museum of Very Bad Smells. Before the grand opening of the museum, one of the staff notices that the world-famous Rotten Egg has been stolen, and all the other staff at the museum are suspects. Readers are asked to help figure out where the egg is and who stole it. Was it Herman, the hermit crab with his fishy smells? Beetle, with his prized work of dung? Or Pickles, the happy dog with nervous farts? As readers make their way through the book, they will come across four, very smelly, clues that will lead them to potential suspects. The fifth smell will lead them to the next great work of “art.”

The Museum of Very Bad Smells is certainly not your average interactive book, but one that young readers will especially enjoy. Each smelly clue is marked by a hand imitating a scratching motion and the words “sniff sniff”. But beware, only those with a brave nose should dare smell each clue! Surprisingly, the smells, including fish, dung, and wet dog to name a few, are quite accurate and might not agree with everyone. The watercolour and acrylic illustrations are bright and engaging, using the flow of speech bubbles to guide the story with humor and lots of punctuation, indicating the excitement of the museum staff in catching the thief.

Young readers will really enjoy sharing The Museum of Very Bad Smells with their friends, daring them to smell the clues. It is fun and silly, perfect for the elementary age, and intriguing enough that some adults just might take a sniff as well.