Children's Book Reviews: Nonsense Poetry 4&up

[Wendy E. Betts]

NOTES FROM THE WINDOWSILL
An electronic journal of book reviews. Copyright 1994 Wendy E. Betts.
Reproduction for personal and non-profit use is permitted only if this
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Vol. 2, No. 101 Nonsense Poetry, 4 & Up/6 & Up 9/20/94

__ Bing Bang Boing_ written and illustrated by Douglas Florian. Harcourt
Brace, 1994 (0-15-233770-9) $15.95

Although I've enjoyed Florian's work in the past, it's always seemed a
bit overwhelmed by the "one poem, facing one illustration" picture
book format. This much larger collection (144 pages) has a more
comfortable, balanced feel, with poems and pictures fitting into each
other on the pages and working together perfectly. The result is a
very enjoyable book that expresses the many moods of nonsense poetry:
some pure whimsy, some ghoulishness, and some convolutedly revealing
looks at life and people. With clever rhymes and a twisted sense of
humor, Florian gives us some new ways to look at familiar things.

In _Bing Bang Boing_ we find horrible creatures that turn out to be
teachers, robots that write poems, and pease-porridge that, after nine
days in the pot, might eat you. We also learn what cannibals prefer
to noodles and cheese ("noodles and knees"), the real problem of the
old lady who lived in the shoe ("Pew!") and the best way to swallow
ones pride ("fried.")

Perhaps most strongly expressed by the poems are sharp contrasts
between the child world and the adult world. Those from the point of
view of children are delightfully silly and carefree, like "If I Eat
More Candy," in which the narrator imagines the horrible fate that
will be befall him if he eats more candy, ending with "the stench of
my breath Will kill birds in the air--But This candy's so good That I
really don't care!" Views of the adult word, however, are somber,
filled with pathetic people like "Mrs. Mary Musty" who covered the sea
so it wouldn't get wet and covered the sun so it wouldn't set. The
surreal black and white sketches that go with the poems add emphasis
to both their humor and their (occasionally) emotional overtones--as
well as often adding a little bite to poems that seem to be overdosing
on whimsy.

__ There Was an Old Man..._ by Edward Lear. Illustrated by Michele
Lemieux. Morrow, 1994 (0-688-10788-5) $15.00

This little anthology of Lear's nonsense limericks is an gorgeous,
extravagent production, possibly more suitable to collectors than
children. Almost anyone could enjoy it, though: even I, never much of
a limerick fan, found it very funny. Lemieux pays tribute to a number
of artistic styles--surrealism, Escher-like optical illusions, and
many I can't place--in absurd, witty caricatures that bring out all of
the whimsical humor inherent in the rhymes. Her imaginative
embellishments are particularly fine: an "Old Person" who sat in the
dust is drawn as a mouse-size man sitting on a dustpan; the "Old Lady
of Chertsey" who "twirled round and round til she sunk underground" is
drawn as a ballerina whose skirt and legs have become a giant screw.
The watercolors are also beautifully colored, as attractive as they
are humorous.

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--
Wendy E. Betts, Editor "The WEB: Celebrating Children's Literature"
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"Personally I just let fashion go...if I wash behind my ears and don't
slouch, that's about as far as I care to go." _Freddy the Pied Piper_