Lazy Blackbird and Other Verses

Lazy Blackbird and Other Verses
Jack Prelutsky ~ Janosch ~ Macmillian, 1966

As mentioned before, we are mad about verse in this house. Anything that rhymes and has flow is always welcome... for the boy, because he loves the silly sounds, and for me, as I have my heart set on raising a poet, if not a published one, then at least one of spirit. So we listen to alot of Shel Silverstein. (Which, if you've never listened to one of his books on tape, you are really missing something. Nobody can read his stuff like he can, except perhaps Dennis Locorriere who does a pretty good Shel on the audio of Runny Babbit.) And we read a ton of Prelutsky. My only regret about this book in particular is that there is not more of it. Eleven verses in total, the words are snappy and sharp with great drawings by the German master to illustrate the point... but they end way too soon.

The miller beat his donkey
But when he saw his tears
The miller put his whip away
And scratched his donkey's ears.

Stretch your neck and watch the sky
Four fine blackbirds flying by
Bend your head and look around
Lazy blackbird on the ground.

Funny, funny stuff. I feel compelled to just reprint the entire book, but then that would take the fun out of the find, now wouldn't it? Of late, I've been feeling overwhelmed by books. The collecting is a sickness really. We just have shelves and shelves and shelves of them teeming everywhere. And just when I swear I won't bring another one in the house, a lovely gem like this stumbles past and I have to take it in. Well, at least this illness isn't so bad when contagious. Heaven knows at this point the boy has got the cooties too.

Also by:
Three Saxon Nobles
The Thieves and the Raven