Stinky Stuff is a story of challenges, resilience, and perseverance. It's a story of how anyone can learn early that circumstances (surrounding conditions) don't make you who you are nor what you want to become, but it's how you handle those circumstances that makes the difference. Yes, the character was a slow reader, and his words never seem to come out right when reading aloud. Yes, it made him feel scared, embarrassed, alone, and hurt when reading aloud. And yes, he wanted to run out of the class when the tingling in his legs and the butterflies in his stomach became almost unbearable with fear of having to reveal his weakness to his classmates. Yet he sat through it all as his selfaEUR"esteem went underground. But then, some encouraging words were spoken with a belief that could not be ignored. His mother said, "Challenge yourself," and that he did.