There Was an Old Monster - Ed Emberley

Illustrated by Rebecca Emberley
Music by Adrian Emberley
Listen to the song at Scholastic.com/OldMonster
Orchard/Scholastic, 2009
For: young kids
Endpapers: Red

Cut paper collage on black. This time this New England Father-daughter team add another generation - granddaughter Adrian is a performing songwriter!

Based on - what else - the old lady who swallowed a fly - a monster begins his uncomfortable journey by swallowing a tick that makes him feel sick. He follows that with ants, a lizard, a bat, a jackal, a bear, and then he encounters a lion! Guess what happens next!

Too much fun! And perfect for Halloween.

The House in the Night - Susan Marie Swanson

Illustrator: Beth Krommes
For: Very young kids
Pub: 2008
Rating: Lovely/ 4
Read: Sept. 14, 2008
Endpapers: The same bright yellow which are the only illustration color other than black and white
2009 Caldecott WINNER ! ! !

This is a lovely bedtime book!

Black and white scratchboard, accented with a bright yellow...gorgeous.

The House in the Night is one of those cumulative books in the House that Jack Built vein. Here is the key to the house./ In the house burns a light./ In that light rests a bed./ On that bed rests a book....and onward, out throught the starry darkness to the moon ... and back, to find the child asleep in the bed. MmmmmmHmmmmm.

I Know an Old Teacher - Anne Bowen

Illustrated by Stephen Gammell
For: Kids
Pub: 2008
Rating: 3/5
Finished: Aug. 10, 2008
signed by the author

I picked this up at BEA in May, but just got a chance to read it. I love rhyme and rhythm (repetition I can take or leave....well, mainly leave) and since this is a take off on The Old Lady That Swallowed a Fly, it's full of rhyme and ryhthm. The red haired teacher, Miss Bindley, takes the class pets home for the weekend. When she inadvertantly swallows a flea:

"I know an old lady who swallowed a flea.
It fell from her hair and plopped into her tea."

she begins gulping down various class pets to begin the inevitable chain reaction. I love humor, I LOVE Gammell's illustrations, but somehow the premise of this story doesn't tickle my funny bone just right. Why would such a cool-looking, smart teacher start eating...live...her class's beloved pets? Yuck! At the end she swallows one of her students who has been peeking into her window throughout the story. This I laughed at. Go figure.

Again, I love the illustrations, although I'm more grossed out than I would have guessed at the rat and the snake disappearing into - and protruding from - Miss Bindley's mouth. This is probably the reaction the illustrator was looking for. Stephen Gammell IS terrific.