Three Saxon Nobles
Jack Prelutsky ~ Eva Johanna Rubin ~ MacMillian, 1967
I applaud any effort by a writer of the last 40 years to write serious verse for children, and Jack Prelutsky certainly seems to be the master (second maybe only to Mr. Silverstein, of course). All of the verses here are sharp and catchy and HUGELY fun to read, and the drawings bright and cheerful... the sun illustrations alone are enough to make me happy for weeks... very 60s vibe.
There once was a little beanA little white bean
Who journeyed to England
To visit the queen.
England was closed
And the queen was in Rome
So the little white bean
Turned around and sailed home.
I don't know about you but that little round bean standing on deck with his chest buffed out is almost too much for me to handle without giggling my head off. I almost feel tempted to silkscreen his little beany butt on some t-shirts and give them to all my son's friends.... but alas. There are plenty of laughs where that came from.
I had two copies of this book before and got rid of them because the boy didn't quite get it, but now that he is Mr. Knock Knock, I think the saxons are here to stay. Anything silly that rhymes is a big hit with the three-going-on-four-year-old set.
If you like Prelutsky and Silverstein, you'll probably also like Dennis Lee. He's a Canadian children's poet, with loads of silliness, and not that well known in the US. Check out the books "Garbage Delight" or "Alligator Pie"; they are his best. I grew up on his poems and can still recite some of them from memory.
ReplyDeleteLOVE your blog! I've gotten many wonderful ideas from it. Thanks!
These illustrations reminds me a lot of a popular Spanish illustrator in the 70's/80's called Juan Ramón Sanchez. They're very nice BTW
ReplyDeleteWow, This book looks great!
ReplyDeleteI had this book as a child, but lost it.
ReplyDeleteToday, I found a book with similar looking illustrations, and, alas, it also was drawn by Eva Johanna Rubin. I googled a bit and found your blog, with the lost book. All I have to do is to find the german title :(
Can you help?