Garbage Pail Kids Books in Order

R.L. Stine's Garbage Pail Kids books turn the trading-card characters into an illustrated comedy series about ten children living together in Smellville. Their home is a rundown house, their habits are disgusting, and they don't see much reason to behave like everyone else. They want to have fun, get through school and enjoy their own peculiar way of life. Other people, especially their tidy rivals, would prefer them to change.

Welcome to Smellville introduces the household and its problems. Adam Bomb, Brainy Janey and their companions get into trouble at middle school while facing bullies and the Perfect twins, Penny and Parker. The joke is built into that contrast. The Garbage Pail Kids make a mess wherever they go, while the Perfects represent the neatness and good behavior their neighbors would rather see. Sharing a town gives the two groups plenty of chances to clash.

Being gross is practically a group identity.

The stories give different members of the household time to tell their side of events. Names such as Luke Puke and Rob Slob offer a fair warning about the humor, and Adam Bomb's exploding head takes the characters well beyond ordinary childhood mischief. Illustrations help turn those traits into visual jokes. The series treats their behavior as the starting point for comedy, rather than asking readers to believe these are realistic children in an otherwise realistic town.

In Thrills and Chills, the children want to win the Smellville Pet Contest. The Perfect twins have a Chihuahua called Good Boy, so the competition places the household against another example of everything their rivals seem to do properly. A contest gives the kids a shared goal and a reason to put their strange talents to use. It also carries their neighborhood feud into a new setting, where winning matters more to them than making a respectable impression.

Camp Daze takes the ten children away from Smellville and into summer camp. The location changes, but they bring their appetite for mischief with them. Moving the group together keeps the household dynamic at the center of the story, even when the usual school and neighborhood routines fall away. The series can therefore shift between home, contests and camp without losing the group that connects the books.

Begin with Welcome to Smellville, then follow the children into Thrills and Chills and Camp Daze. These are illustrated middle-grade comedies for readers who enjoy outrageous behavior, bodily jokes and a cast whose oddness is the main attraction. The continuing question is what sort of trouble this household can create when it tries to have an ordinary good time.