Squids Will Be Squids is a children's picture book

Picture book

A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. The images in picture books use a range of media such as oil paints, acrylics, watercolor and pencil.Two of the earliest books with something like the format picture books still retain now...

 written by Jon Scieszka

Jon Scieszka

Jon Scieszka was born September 8, 1954 in Flint, Michigan is an American author of children's literature, best known for his collaborations with illustrator Lane Smith. He is also a nationally recognized reading advocate, and in early 2008 was named the National Ambassador for Young People's...

 and illustrated by Lane Smith

Lane Smith (illustrator)

Lane Smith is an American children's book author and illustrator.-Background:Smith was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but moved to Corona, California at a young age...

. It was published in 1998 by Viking Press

Viking Press

Viking Press is an American publishing company owned by the Penguin Group, which has owned the company since 1975. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim...

.

Reception

Roger Sutton, of Horn Book Magazine

Horn Book Magazine

The Horn Book Magazine, founded in Boston in 1924, is a bimonthly periodical about literature for children and young adults. It began life as a "suggestive purchase list" prepared by Bertha Mahony Miller and Elinor Whitney Field, proprietresses of the country's first bookstore for children, The...

, reviewed the book saying, "The humor is definitely juvenile and wears a little thin, but Scieszka has perfect pitch when it comes to this kind of thing ("Moral: He who smelt it, dealt it"), and Smith's portraits find the humanity behind the masks".