Limericks & Humorous Verse Books

Belly Button Book (Boynton on Board)

Sandra Boynton

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 51 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Emboldened by the enthusiastic response to Belly Button (Round)—a song from her Grammy-nominated book/CD, Philadelphia Chickens—Sandra Boynton further contemplates this mesmerizing subject.

Featuring a beachful of bare-bellied hippos—including one tiny baby who can only say “Bee Bo”—the Belly Button Book is the latest quirky addition to the phenomenally successful Boynton on Board series. Every page captivates with Sandra Boynton’s inimitable illustrations and joyful rhyming text:

Soon after dark, upon the beach, we sing a hippo song, and if you’re feeling in the mood, we hope you’ll sing along: “Belly Belly Button, you’re oh so fine. Ooo, Belly Button, I’m so happy you’re mine.”

Shiny and sturdy, and featuring a great (navel-shaped, naturally) die-cut cover that offers a provocative glimpse of the merriment inside, the Belly Button Book provides enduring, giggly, read-aloud fun.

The Cartoon Guide to Chemistry (Cartoon Guide To...)

Larry Gonick, Craig Criddle

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A refreshingly humorous but thorough ancillary guide to general chemistry from the author of the bestselling The Cartoon Guide to Physics and The Cartoon Guide to Genetics.

The Cartoon Guide to Chemistry, a collaboration between pre–eminent scientist Professor Craig Criddle of Stanford University and cartoonist Larry Gonick, is a complete and up–to–date course in college level chemistry. In an engaging and humorous graphic style, the book covers both the history and the basics, including early ideas and techniques, electrochemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, environmental chemistry, physics as chemistry; and much more.

o Ideal for advanced high school students, university students and independent learners.

o o Larry Gonick's bestselling Cartoon Guide series, comprised of eleven books, have sold more than a half a million copies and been translated into more than a dozen languages.

o Teachers, researchers, and students around the world have embraced Larry Gonick's unique ability to make difficult subjects fun, interesting and easy–to–understand while still relaying the essential information in a clear, organized and accurate format. In 2003 Larry Gonick won the Harvey Award for the year's best graphic album of original material for The Cartoon History of the Universe III. The prestigious award, named for Mad pioneer Harvey Kurtzman is considered to be the Oscar of the comic–book world.

A Light in the Attic

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 63 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

As sweet as they used to be 5 out of 5 stars.
219 of 219 people found this review helpful.

Silverstein is our favorite author of children's books. He is just perfect! In fact his works are as good for the parents as for their children. Whichever Silverstein's book I bought for any of my five children (each one of them has his own Silverstein), we have ALL read them. That includes my children, myself, and even sometimes my husband. "Light in the Attic" is no exception to that rule. I think that all of Shel's books are equally good. Check also Runny Babbit: A Billy Sook, A Giraffe and a Half, Where the Sidewalk Ends 30th Anniversary Edition: Poems and Drawings. If you are a loving mother that wants to see smile on your child's face, give him Silverstein - it's children's literature classic and a safe bet. A recent discovery for me is Boszenna Nowiki and her series Why Some Cats are Rascals, Book 1, Why Some Cats are Rascals, Book 2, Why Some Cats are Rascals ( Book 3) with some very touching stories of speaking cats...

Editorial Review:

Last night while I lay thinking here
Some Whatifs crawled inside my ear
And pranced and partied all night long
And sang their same old Whatif song:

Whatif I flunk that test?
Whatif green hair grows on my chest?
Whatif nobody likes me?
Whatif a bolt of lightning strikes me?...

Here in the attic of Shel Silverstein you will find Backward Bill, Sour Face Ann, the Meehoo with an Exactlywatt, and the Polar Bear in the Frigidaire. You will talk with Broiled Face, and find out what happens when Somebody steals your knees, you get caught by the Quick-Digesting Gink, a Mountain snores, and They Put a Brassiere on the Camel.

From the creator of the beloved poetry collections Where the Sidewalk Ends and Falling Up, here is another wondrous book of poems and drawings.

The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

Ambrose Bierce

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Beautiful Mind 5 out of 5 stars.
16 of 16 people found this review helpful.

If truth is beauty, and beauty truth, this is one good looking book. As an aspiring cynic, finding this book was akin to Ahab finding the whale. (I have no idea what that means). I don't think this book could be written today. Most of Bierce's definitions have become accepted fact. The book belongs in the library of everyone who believes Political Correctness is the beginning of the end of the world. Without the ability to communicate honestly, we are doomed. If you don't agree, you're just a bigoted fool. (see Bierce definitions). A great, funny, lucid book.

Editorial Review:

A virtual onslaught of acerbic, confrontational wordplay, The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary offers some 1,600 wickedly clever definitions to the vocabulary of everyday life. Little is sacred and few are safe, for Ambrose Bierce targets just about any pursuit, from matrimony to immortality, that allows our willful failings and excesses to shine forth.

This is the most extensively annotated edition of a work by Bierce ever published, and the first edition of The Devil's Dictionary to provide detailed bibliographical information on every entry. It will be celebrated by wits and word lovers everywhere.

First time in paperback.

This Little Piggy Went to Prada: Nursery Rhymes for the Blahnik Brigade

Amy Allen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

For Fashionista Mommies 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Absolutly adorable and entertaining for moms and rhythmic for babies. It's definitly European lingo, but still great for us Americans!

Very, very disappointed 1 out of 5 stars.
0 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This Little Piggy Went to Prada: Nursery Rhymes for the Blahnik Brigade
I was looking for books for my daughter to read to my 15 month old grandaughter, and saw this book. I read the reviews and knew it would be too advanced for my grandaughter but thought her mother would enjoy it. How wrong I was. I thought it would be some tonge-in-cheek version of nursery tales, but there was nothing amusing or funny about a rhyme that ends with the line "Time for Mummy to Detox". The other rhymes were OK but that one line negated any possible enjoyment in the book.

Editorial Review:

For the woman more accustomed to singing Missoni's praises than singing lullabies comes Amy Allen's irresistible This Little Piggy Went to Prada: Nursery Rhymes for the Blahnik Brigade. Filled from cover to cover with sumptuous full color illustrations by Eun-Kyung Kung, This Little Piggy Went to Prada presents classic nursery rhymes with a thoroughly modern and charmingly ironic spin that will make the most sleepless fashionista mom smile, even when she's knee-deep in diapers.

Cautionary Tales for Children

Edward Gorey, Hilaire Belloc

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Completing the Edward Gorey library 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

JIM, who ran away from his nurse and was eaten by a lion.

It's small wonder that Edward Gorey chose to illustrate Belloc's verses, written nearly a century ago - in fact, they were such a clear and strong influence on his work, it's hard to believe he didn't write them himself. 'Cautionary Tales' is a literary work that was years ahead of its time, parodying the overtly-strict educational children's verses of the time with tales of children whose punishment is wholly disproportioned to their crime. Gorey's illustrations, published only after his death in 2000, complete the ghoulish verses with his trademark naïve and refined black and white crosshatching. Already in his seventies, Gorey has lost none of his charm and style and these illustrations are as nasty and sarcastic as anything he's done, perfectly complimenting the ironic text.

'Cautionary Tales' is the first work of Gorey's published after his death, and it's a perfect conclusion to his illustrious career, and one of his finest works. It's an essential to any fan of this great artist.

Editorial Review:

Known as a central figure in English literature, Hilaire Belloc produced a number of stunning, funny, and clever admonishments for children. The tales in this volume, illustrated by the inimitable Edward Gorey, contain instructive lessons for almost everyone.
For those children prone to wandering off from their caretakers, there is the story of a certain young Jim, "who ran away from his nurse and was eaten by a lion." Those known to stretch the truth will hardly be comforted by the tale of Matilda, "who told lies and was burned to death." And as for those of us--and our children--who tend to the vainglorious, there is the sobering tale of Godolphin Horne, "who was cursed with the sin of pride and became a boot-black."
Witty, brilliant, and strikingly irreverent.

On Beyond Zebra! (Classic Seuss)

Dr. Seuss, Theodor Seuss Geisel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A thoroughly Seussian tweak of the alphabet-book tradition, On Beyond Zebra is about all the letters that most people ignore--the ones that come after Z. Our hero (instantly recognizable to most Seuss fans as the boy who captured Thing One and Thing Two in The Cat in the Hat) takes his young friend, Conrad Cornelius O'Donald O'Dell, on a guided tour of all the weird creatures that begin with letters such as Yuzz, Wumbus, and Glikk. "And Nuh is the letter I use to spell Nutches, Who live in small caves, known as Nitches, for hutches." The message is pretty simple: the alphabet pins down boring old "reality," but if you explore further afield there are more interesting worlds to discover. "So, on beyond Z! It's high time you were shown, / That you really don't know all there is to be known." Explorers in need of guidance will even find a table of useful new letters (a beyondabet? a WumbaGlikk?) in the back. (Ages 4 to 8) --Richard Farr

Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich

Adam Rex

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Best. Kids'. Book. Ever. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Adam Rex is a man after my own heart. He's funny, intelligent, witty, talented, and most of all he likes sharing these qualities with the rest of us. He may be my favorite author for children in years, and this from an arts librarian in the public schools. I've even given to my friends' kids to make sure that they get to have access to it, too. This book is too good to pass by; get copies for everyone you know! Kids will love it and adults won't be bored; win-win for everyone.
And the bit about the Phantom of the Opera having "The Girl from Ipanema" stuck in his head? Priceless, absolutely priceless. I love you, Adam Rex.

Editorial Review:

Being a monster isn't all frightening villagers and sucking blood. Monsters have their trials, too. Poor Frankenstein's cupboard is bare, Wolfman is in need of some household help, and it's best not to get started on Dracula’s hygiene issues. What could be scarier?

Nineteen hilarious poems delve into the secret lives of the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Bigfoot, Godzilla, and others. In a range of styles that pay homage to everyone from Charles Schulz to John James Audubon, the monstrously talented Adam Rex uncovers horrific--and clever--truths you won't want to miss.

(08/01/2006)

Zombie Haiku: Good Poetry For Your...Brains

Ryan Mecum

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Night of the Living Crap 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Now I am a fan of zombies (who doesn't love a re-animated corpse that wanders around eating the living?) and I am also a fan of haiku poetry. So imagine my excitement upon discovering Zombie Haiku at my local bookstore.

Everyone knows about haiku. We learn about the form sometime in grade school. At its most generic, it's a three line poem with 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, and 5 in the third. It's traditionally about nature. This definition is not completely accurate but if you really want to learn pick up The Haiku Handbook by William Higginson.

But certainly there is more than enough room to play with and explore this type of poem, and while it is widely known, it really hasn't been used to great effect in pop culture. I want some werewolf haiku, some vampire, some sci-fi, who knows. There are some really fun possibilities. Haiku about zombies is an awesome idea, and I'm surprised it took this long for a book to be published. Haiku at its best presents a vivid image in a vivid moment that hopefully makes the reader feel something and have an emotional reaction. Haiku make us think, examine words, imagine, and connect.

Ryan Mecum does none of this. Zombie Haiku is unfortunately just a poorly written first person zombie narrative told in seventeen syllable sentences. Mecum is relying on the novelty of haiku to distract from the fact that he has no real writing skill.

The book is presented as a "facsimile" of a poetry journal found during a zombie epidemic. The pages of this journal are filled with haiku created by a poet as he first encounters a zombie, becomes one, and undergoes all the wacky adventures involved in finding brains.

I never quite got how he manages to write these haiku as a rotting zombie constantly pursuing victims. There are pictures taped to some pages because I guess most zombies carry Polaroid cameras. There are also some poems taped into the book, which are torn from printed pages, because I guess zombies also enjoy word processing. It doesn't really make sense and feels really forced.

The book is found by a survivor of the plague and bookends the haiku with the usual "If you find this journal tell my wife I love her" clichés.

The vast majority of haiku in the book aren't worth any mention. There are some decent at best like:

The flies on my neck
are starting to irritate
the other dead guy.

But most don't work out of context at all and are weak attempts to move a boring story forward:

My memory slows
and I can't remember much
but I know enough.

What? The haiku become repetitive and predictable as they are usually two set up lines followed by an eye popping or bone breaking. And of course we have the very obvious "brains" repeated seventeen times.

The story is nothing new, the format is forced and makes no sense, the haiku are really weak, and the book has a surprising lack of fun and cleverness for being titled Zombie Haiku.

Now maybe I am taking the book way too seriously but I was really expecting something great. I wanted really clever haiku poetry about a zombie epidemic. That would be an awesome book! Zombie Haiku is dedicated to George Romero who I can't help feel would be really disappointed. Someone will do better.

Editorial Review:

What you are looking at is a document from the early days of the zombie plague. Little is known about the author before his infection--only that he was a poet. This facsimile of his actual journal recounts the events of humanity's darkest hours through the intimate poetry of haiku. Inside you'll find increasingly disjointed and terrifying three-line poems (all in the classic 5-7-5 syllable structure), and follow the undead poet on a journey through deserted streets and barricaded doors. Experience every eye-popping, gut-wrenching, flesh-eating moment of the eventual downfall of the human race from the point of view of a zombie, and gain insight to help you survive--if you can.

Archy and Mehitabel

Don Marquis

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

classic comedy 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is classic humor - and even though it is nearly 100 years old, this is still funny and interesting. In fact, Mehitabel's refrain has become my mantra: "wotthehell wotthehell toujours gai I always say, there's life in the old girl yet."

Editorial Review:

Of all the literary genres, humor has the shortest shelf life--except for Archy and Mehitabel, that is. First published in 1916, it is a classic of American literature. Archy is a cockroach, inside whom resides the soul of a free-verse poet; he communicates with Don Marquis by leaping upon the keys of the columnist's typewriter. In poems of varying length, Archy pithily describes his wee world, the main fixture of which is Mehitabel, a devil-may-care alley cat.

Archy music will linger in your head long after you finish the book. Here's a tiny taste from his interview with a mummy:

"what ho
my regal leatherface says i

greetings
little scatter footed
scarab
says he"

Writers (particularly journalists) can go lifetimes without attaining such loose-limbed grace. And the illustrations by George Herriman ("Krazy Kat") provide the perfect counterpoint. On top of all that, Marquis did the impossible: he made a cockroach loveable.