Poetry Friday - A review of In Aunt Giraffe’s Green Garden

For today's poetry book I have a collection of wonderfully amusing poems that were written by Jack Prelutsky, the first American Children's Poet Laureate. If you need something to cheer you up, then this is the book for you.

In Aunt Giraffe’s Green Garden

Jack Prelutsky

Illustrated by Petra Mathers

Poetry

For ages 4 to 8

HarperCollins, 2007, 978-0-06-623868-5

   Sometimes the world is not a very happy place. The news is full of glum stories, the weather won’t cooperate, chores refuse to go away, and mothers insist on sit-down dinners that require one to eat things one does not like. When all of these unhappy things begin to pile up, one of the things one can do is to find something amusing to read, and this book will serve that purpose very well indeed.

   For this book, America’s first Children’s Poet Laureate has created twenty-eight delightful poems that will put a smile on even the gloomiest of faces. He tells us about Aunt Giraffe who has flowers in her garden that are so tall that when she sniffs them “she scarcely stoops at all.” Then there is a girl who goes to Cheyenne “to ride a wild pony / to rope a wild calf.” Unfortunately, the girl has very little skill in the horse riding department, and soon she is bucked off the pony and sitting in the dirt. It doesn’t help that the pony has a good laugh at her expense.

   Further on the book, you will meet some dogs who have ordered their favorite foods at a restaurant. The poodles have “oodles of noodles,” and the Pekingese has “nothing by peas” to eat. As for the greyhound, well you will need to read to the poem to find out what this sneaky fellow does.

   Children and their grownups will greatly enjoy dipping into this book to read Jack Prelutsky’s amusing poems. Throughout the book, the poems are accompanied by Petra Mather’s charming illustrations.