Wallace Tripp

I bought this book when I was a teenager with no children because, obviously, every household needs one. Fast forward a few decades, my oldest child is 40 and the book has been well-read, as the page-turning tears attest. And yesterday, after all those innumerable readings, I still found a new detail in the illustration for "An epicure, dining at Crewe/ Found quite a large mouse in his stew." The epicure is a huge, and hugely annoyed, bear; the mouse sporting a long stripy swimsuit and lifebuoy; the diners in the background include two cats who are obviously saying "Ooh, I want what he's having!" Behind all that, I finally noticed, the restaurant name on the window is CANEM'S CAVE and it advertises Good Grubs. There is literally something new to find every time. And it never ceases to be humorous. Tripp did a series of three books of funny poetry (Granfa Grig Had a Pig and Marguerite Go Wash Your Feet are the others) but I rather think he used the best verses first. If I had to choose one "nursery rhyme" book that I would never get tired of reading aloud, this would be it; Leslie Brooke's Ring of Roses would be a close second.… (mais)

A LOL collection of verse for children with pictures as funny as the poetry. Tripp’s use of mostly animal characters as well as a few human caricatures are a delight for all ages. To pick just one example, in the two page spread for “Hannah Bantry in the panty,” Hanna, a cat wearing a tiara is greedily gnawing at a bone all to herself, while out in the grand dining room a collection of foxes, cats, and badgers are seated at a grand dining room table, all of them with their noses up in the air and looking quite snooty. Behind them a guilt frame upon the wall is a painting of a family of lions strolling before a woodland waterfall. The painting’s title is “Pride Goeth Before a Fall.”… (mais)

I found many of these poems genuinely funny and they were very fun to read aloud. However, I think if you need to include a glossary for certain outdated terms, then maybe those terms shouldn't be included in the poem. A lot of the rhyming seemed force and uncomfortable and many of these poems weren't rhythmic at all. I think kids would be at a loss for what a Jabberwocky is unless they've read Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. It would be fun to keep the glossary page from the kids and have them infer what the odd words mean but in that case I would introduce this to an older class. Overall, this was a funny book with silly poems as promised by the title.… (mais)