Ellen Weiss

Ellen Weiss has written many early-reader books that combine clear language, humor, and collaborative storytelling. The Stinky Giant, published by Random House in 2012, was written with Mel Friedman and illustrated by Alessia Girasole. The story follows Pepper and Jake as they try to rescue King Mustard from Urk, a giant whose riddles create the central challenge. Short chapters, repeated comic situations, and visual clues support readers who are gaining confidence with independent reading. Random House placed the book at Step 3 in its Step into Reading program, a level intended for children ready to manage longer sentences and connected plots. Weiss and Friedman share the author credit, while Girasole’s illustrations carry important parts of the action and humor. The Stinky Giant therefore belongs to a collaborative early-reader tradition rather than to a single-author picture-book format. Its fantasy problem is simple, but the riddle structure gives young readers an active role in following the solution.