When I was in elementary school I had a teacher who loved humorous poetry. Among other things, this teacher introduced me and my classmates to Edward Lear's limericks. We had many laughter-filled lessons exploring these wonderful little poems, many of which we memorized.
Edited by Edward Mendelson
Illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith
Poetry Picture Book
For ages 8 and up
Sterling, 2010, 978-1-4027-7294-8
Most people have, at some point of another, encountered
Edward Lear’s wonderful poems and limericks. So many of his poems are memorable
because they are delightfully peculiar and often funny. The strange thing is
that Edward Lear was a sad person much of the time. He was only really happy
when he was creating art or writing. Though he did make friends, he never married
and was often lonely. As so often is the case with lonely people, Lear was very
fond of children and animals. He enjoyed creating stories and pictures about
animals that children found entertaining. His first collection of poetry, A Book of Nonsense, contained artwork
and poems that he had written for some children whom he befriended.
In this
excellent poetry picture book readers will encounter a wide variety of poems
that Edward Lear wrote. Some will be familiar like The Owl and the Pussycat, The Jumblies and Calico Pie, while others will be new to the reader. What makes this
collection special is that the editor provides readers with an introduction
about Lear’s life and work at the beginning of the book, and every poem is
prefaced by a note that gives readers further information about that poem. Thus
every poem is given a context that helps us to better understand what Edward Lear
was trying to achieve when he wrote the piece.
Though many of
the poems are nonsensical, they do have underlying themes that are serious in
nature. The famous poem, The Owl and the
Pussycat is about an owl and a cat who, despite their differences, want to
be a couple, so they “sailed away, for a year and a day,” to an island where
they were married and the poem ends on such a happy note that we are sure that they
will find happiness.
In The Scroobious Pip, we meet a creature
that is not a mammal, a bird, a fish, or any other kind of recognizable animal.
The other animals are troubled by this and they appoint some of their number to
ask the Scroobious Pip “Are you Beast, or Insect, Bird or Fish?” Some creatures
would develop a complex being asked this question so many times, but the
Scroobius Pip does not allow himself to be perturbed. He is content being who
and what he is.
Throughout the
book the editor also provides us with definitions of some of the words used in
the poems. This feature will certainly help readers to appreciate the poems
fully. After all, many of us have no idea what a “snuffer” or “Stilton Cheese”
is.
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