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    Shrek!
    Shrek!
    Shrek!
    Ebook35 pages27 minutes

    Shrek!

    By William Steig and Stanley Tucci

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    This ebook includes audio narration.
    Before Shrek made it big on the silver screen, there was William Steig's SHREK!, a book about an ordinary ogre who leaves his swampy childhood home to go out and see the world. Shrek, a horrid little ogre, goes out into the world to find adventure and along the way encounters a witch, a knight in armor, a dragon, and, finally, a hideous princess, who's even uglier than he is!

    NARRATED by STANLEY TUCCI.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateJul 30, 2013
    ISBN9781466833272
    Author

    William Steig

    William Steig (1907-2003) was a cartoonist, illustrator and author of award-winning books for children, including Shrek!, on which the DreamWorks movies are based. Steig was born in New York City. Every member of his family was involved in the arts, and so it was no surprise when he decided to become an artist. He attended City College and the National Academy of Design. In 1930, Steig’s work began appearing in The New Yorker, where his drawings have been a popular fixture ever since. He published his first children's book, Roland the Minstrel Pig, in 1968. In 1970, Steig received the Caldecott Medal for Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. His books for children also include Dominic; The Real Thief; The Amazing Bone, a Caldecott Honor Book; Amos & Boris, a National Book Award finalist; and Abel's Island and Doctor De Soto, both Newbery Honor Books. Steig's books have also received the Christopher Award, the Irma Simonton Black Award, the William Allen White Children's Book Award, and the American Book Award. His European awards include the Premio di Letteratura per l'infanzia (Italy), the Silver Pencil Award (the Netherlands), and the Prix de la Fondation de France. On the basis of his entire body of work, Steig was selected as the 1982 U.S. candidate for the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for Illustration and subsequently as the 1988 U.S. candidate for Writing. Steig also published thirteen collections of drawings for adults, beginning with About People in 1939, and including The Lonely Ones, Male/Female, The Agony in the Kindergarten, and Our Miserable Life. He died in Boston at the age of 95.

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    Reviews for Shrek!

    3.5/5

    157 ratings19 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      A fun book to read when discovering the origins of Shrek!
    • 3/5
      Shrek lives the life of an ogre, smelling terrible, scaring people, and marrying a princess who is uglier than he is.
    • 3/5
      I like the Shrek movie better, but this is a cute book. It has a few words in it that I would not like to say aloud during reading time. It is a cute story nonetheless.
    • 3/5
      I see that the movie took many liberties with this story. I enjoyed the movie(s) a lot. This book, not as much. There were good parts. I like that Shrek just went around doing what he wanted, but I think it could have done with a little more something. Even for a children's story, I think it was lacking. Still, it's somewhat worth checking out, if only to see where the idea for the movie came from.
    • 3/5
      The bones of the story are visible, but Dreamworks (thankfully) hung upon them a far superior story.
    • 3/5
      I always think of the German word "schrecklich" - meaning awful or terrible - when I run across a reference to this book, its "hero," or the film based upon them, and that seems completely appropriate (perhaps it was even intentional, on Steig's part?), as Shrek! is the story of one nasty ogre! Uglier even than his ugly parents, with a foul stench that causes flowers to wilt, and a penchant for letting off steam through his ears, Shrek, having been booted from his home, embarks on a quest to find his ideal mate, eventually winning the hand of "the most stunningly ugly princess on the surface of the planet," and living horribly ever after with her...An anti-fairy-tale like no other, this slender picture-book is one I have long been meaning to read, given the critical acclaim garnered by the film that is (loosely) based upon it. I've been holding off seeing that film, until I had a chance to read Steig's original, and that seems to have been a wise choice, judging by the number of online reviews I have read, complaining that the original does not live up to its (apparently) far sweeter film adaptation. For my part, I found Shrek to be an engagingly monstrous read - perfect for young readers who like "gross" stories and humor - and although I wouldn't say it lived up to some of Steig's other titles (books like Amos & Boris, or Sylvester and the Magic Pebble), I did enjoy certain moments - like the rhyming courting scene, between Shrek and his princess! - immensely. Recommended to young readers with a taste for truly disgusting monsters, and to fans of William Steig.
    • 4/5
      A perfectly hideous ogre goes on a quest to find his true love. After defeating a dragon, roasting a knight, and repelling everyone he meets, he finds her, and they live, "horribly ever after.
    • 3/5
      Although I love the vocabulary words Steig uses (blithe, irascible, putrid), and I love that Shrek is truly repulsive (unlike the movie version) I do think I, personally, prefer the movie because it's more complex, nuanced, and interesting. The horrible-ness of the illustrations make the book seem like a Roald Dahl story and I would recommend it to his young fans.
    • 3/5
      Weird, but fun to see how it all began!
    • 5/5
      It gets really interesting but I recommend this book if you've watched the Shrek movies.
    • 5/5
      literally awful in the best way, 10/10, would pirate again.
    • 4/5
      It was awesome and I loved it! Will Read Again Soon
    • 2/5
      I just didn't care for this book.
    • 4/5
      I thought it was a great book sherk had a great personality
    • 4/5
      Pretty good, and something to fill up time...but I'm glad the DreamWorks movies took it further to become the most beloved Ogre there ever was. A. Quinn
    • 4/5
      Is this the book that set all the films in motion? A dedication in this copy says 'fun and nonsense for Maximilian'. This just about sums it up. it is gently inspired of course by all those knights of the round table stories. Great idea.
    • 5/5
      William Steig’s antihero and his compatriots spat flame on the conservative values within the conventions of children's entertainment with this book, written in 1990. Yet Steig also riffed repeatedly on classic fairytale tradition in the book, so that his Shrek existed with one fuming foot within the known sphere of family entertainment, and one squarely outside of it. I liked the movies alright, but this book was and is groundbreaking in ways the films would never dare to be. Uptight parents and institutions may flinch at the "Jabbering Jackass!" comment, even if it's one of my favorite lines of all time.
    • 3/5
      There's a donkey and a dragon, a guarded princess, but the movie was a lot better and spared me the doggerel.
    • 3/5
      Super fun to see the original! I love the rhymes and songs.

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    Shrek! - William Steig

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