POETRY PICTURE BOOK - In Aunt Giraffe's Green Garden by Jack Prelutsky

Illustrated by Petra Matthers

2007, Greenwillow Books

64 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 3.50

My rating: 3

Endpapers: rusty red

Title Page: double page, with the title (etc) on the LEFT page - nice to model that anything goes

Illustrations: borders around each page, pages numbered

Here's a poem I'd model  to show that even silly poems need to make sense:

The Poodles Ate Oodles of Noodles

The poodles ate oodles of noodles,

the setters ate lettuce on rye.

A small Pekingese

at nothing but peas,

and a greyhound ran off with the pie.

Here's one that plays with colors:

In Amarillo, Texas

In Amarillo, Texas,

upon a yellow chair,

complete with yellow pillow,

sat little Willa Ware.

She at a yellow apple,

she ate a yellow pear,

while wearing yellow flowers

atop her yellow hair.

And of course I must include one that features Maine - and uses the wonderful word galoshes: (and gives kids the ridiculous notion that you can wander the beach and find a LOBSTER!!!! ...oh my, Mr. Prelutsky....)

There's a Lady in Galoshes

There's a lady in galoshes,

and her name is Jolly Jane.

How she loves to look for lobsters

on the rocky coast of Maine.

She can find them by the dozen

in the sun and wind and rain.

She's the queen of lobster ladies,

and her name is Jolly Jane.

T

My comments:  I love Prelutsky, but this isn't one of my favorites.  The illustrations are cool, but the poems are pretty young - too young, in most cases, for me to use with fourth graders.

Goodreads:  In this companion to The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders, a gardening giraffe, a contented bluebird, and poodles eating oodles of noodles are featured in a collection of 28 poems from the award-winning team of Prelutsky and Mathers. Full color.