This is a gentle, touching, and wonderfully funny story that addresses themes of loneliness, prejudice, and unconventional friendship. Twelve-year-old Chloe Crumb is quiet, lonely, and feels invisible at home, where her only solace is in reading. Her life is complicated by her ambitious, social-climbing mother and her father, who is largely ignored. Chloe's world brightens whenever she encounters the local tramp, a kind and witty old man named Mr. Stink, who lives on a park bench with his faithful, scruffy dog, Duchess. Mr. Stink is an intelligent gentleman, despite his overwhelmingly foul smell, and he is the only person who truly seems to understand Chloe. Determined to help her friend, Chloe hatches a secret plan: she invites Mr. Stink to live secretly in her family's garden shed. Hiding a tramp from her highly judgmental and nosy mother proves to be a hilarious challenge, one filled with near misses and comical cover-ups. When the secret is inevitably exposed, the whole town is rocked. The book culminates in a touching revelation of Mr. Stink's true, surprising identity and a powerful lesson about looking past appearances to see the person within.
