Poetry Friday: Monster Goose

Goofy illustrations, icky adaptations of Mother Goose rhymes (that icky is a complement, by the way),  and a whole lotta humor make Judy Sierra's Monster Goose a swell Halloween read. (The art, acrylics and colored pencil on watercolor paper, is by Jack E. Davis.) Because the book is a take-off on poems many children have heard, young readers will be so in on the jokes.  One of the more, er, graphic works starts out, "There was an old zombie who lived in a shoe./She had so many maggots, she didn't know what to do." Another goes, "Sing a song of sea slime, sewer gas, and sludge." Ew, gross. Read more, Mom!

The roundup of other Poetry Friday participants is here at Chicken Spaghetti today. Please leave a link in the comments. Thanks!

Spanning the Kidlitosphere on Poetry Friday in which a bunch of bloggers post about pot'ry. I mean po'try.

Take your hall pass and visit A Year of Reading for Conference Comp Day Haiku.

Tockla's World of Children's Literature gives a shout-out to a beautiful feline with "The Owl and the Pussycat." Photo included! 

Say welcome to Elaine in her first official Poetry Friday post, at Blue Rose Girls. Her original poem "Tyrannosaurus Rex, a Glutton for Punishment" gave me my first chuckle of the morning.

See Scholar's Blog for two selections by WWI poet Edward Thomas: "Rain" and "October."

In honor of the new Cybils awards, Blog from the Windowsill sends us on a fun author hunt with "Are You A Book Person?"

A gorgeous new collection of La Fontaine fables is on the mind of Big A little a, who quotes from Ranjit Bolt's translation of "The Man and the Mirrors."

Is it raining in your neck of the woods, too? It's shorn the leaves off a lot of trees around here.  Kelly Fineman offers Thomas Hardy's "Autumn Rain-Scene."

Maybe what this rainy Friday needs is some magic. You can find "Fairy Bread," by Robert Louis Stevenson, at Little Willow's Slayground.

Book Buds reviews Nancy Crocker's Betty Lou Blue, a book with a "timeless message."

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast highlights Louise Glück's "Averno," a 2006 National Book Award nominee.

There's snow on the ground at Farm School, and here I am, kvetching about a little rain. Becky recommends two sources for Edna St. Vincent Millay's "When the Year Grows Old."

What is one of the reasons that Adrienne loves John Ciardi? Skip over to What Adrienne Thinks About That to find out.

Strasight outta the eighteenth century comes "The Fly," by William Oldys, at Susan Taylor Brown's Once Upon a Time...

I'd like to go sit on the lofty hill in "The Autumn," but I'd get mighty wet today. Instead, I'll settle for reading Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem at The Family-Centered Life.

Some more school haikus are waiting for you over at Check It Out. Even the principal at Ms. Mac's school wrote one.

More chuckles: Journey Woman posts a parody of a Robert Browning work.

GottaBook's Gregory K. chimes in with a basketball poem, "Dunk!"

A Wrung Sponge contributes Joyce Carol Thomas's "Hide Me in the Cradle of Your Love."

Comments

[Mary Lee]

You can find an original haiku in honor of Conference Comp Day (a holiday for teachers) at A Year of Reading!

[Laura Atkins]

I am desperately trying to post a poetry Friday addition to my blog, but Blogger is having none of it. Hopefully the Owl and the Pussycat, dedicated to my ailing feline, will be posted eventually...

[Elaine Magliaro]

Poetry Friday is now up and running at the Blue Rose Girls. I included a link to the
Cybil site on my post and a suggestion that readers nominate their favorite children's poetry book of 2006.
Come visit BRG today.
http://bluerosegirls.blogspot.com/2006/10/
poetry-friday.html

[Andrea]

Hey!

This is my first visit to your site and can you believe we just recorded our Monster Goose Podcast this morning!?!

What a fabulous book this is. Our girls are completely hooked on it and when it went missing recently our girls went thru withdrawal. A replacement finally arrived this week in time for a Hallowe'en review and our girls were in ecstacy.

Our review will be posted Monday at www.JustOneMoreBook.com

I'll definitely be returning to this site as since we obviously share taste,
Andrea

[Kelly]

Hi Susan:

Looks like a great book. My Eli would love it!

Here's my entry this week:

http://kidslitinformation.blogspot.com/2006/10/poetry-friday-review-hare-and-tortoise.html

Kelly

[Kelly Fineman]

For Poetry Friday, I've posted a Thomas Hardy poem today at my blog: http://kellyrfineman.livejournal.com/144621.html?mode=reply

[Elaine Magliaro]

Susan,

I think MONSTER GOOSE is a riot! And what's great about the parodies is that they can be enjoyed by people of all ages--from little tykes to elder folks like me.

[Susan Taylor Brown]

I've got William Oldys and THE FLY
posting late on my blog.
http://susanwrites.livejournal.com/60183.html

[nrkii]

I'm in!

http://journey-woman.blogspot.com/2006/10/little-poetry-for-you-parody-of.html

Thanks Susan!

Nancy

[nrkii]

By the way Susan, your post makes me think of "Great green globs of greasy grimy gopher guts..." which has been going through my head for weeks now (I have no clue why).

[Susan]

Thanks, everyone!

Andrea, what a coincidence. I'll listen to the podcast when you post it. We're loving Monster Goose here.

Elaine,it really is a lot of fun. I agree!

Kelly, find it at the libe for your son; Junior thinks it's the bomb. He gets it more than he gets "Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich" (which really is hilarious, if you get the references).

Nancy, my son would love the Gopher Guts song; I'd better not tell him about it!

[Gregory K.]

I managed to get up a Poetry Friday entry, too. I'd say it's a late entry, but it's only noon where I am! So here's my basketball poem as the season gets underway (in Fib form, no less!)

Dunk!

[cloudscome]

Chiming in with my Friday's poetry entry here: Cradle of Your Love by Joyce Carol Thomas; in honor of my sons.