Friday, May 05, 2006

Poetry Friday/Review


This week's Poetry Friday entry doubles as a review.

Thelonius Monster's Sky-High Fly Pie comes with the following author information: "A revolting rhyme by Judy Sierra with delicious drawings by Edward Koren." Actually, the rhymes are pretty darn delicious too. Thelonius Monster's Sky-High Fly Pie is a fabulously funny (and disgusting in just the right way) rhymer for the pre-school set.

Using There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly as inspiration, Thelonius Monster's Sky-High Fly Pie begins as follows:
Thelonius Monster
once swallowed a fly,
and decided that flies would taste
grand in a pie.
That silly guy!

My favorite stanza actually comes next. It's accompanied by an extremely clever drawing of Thelonius sending off an e-mail to ARACHNID@spider.net:

Thelonius urgently
e-mailed a spider:
He wanted advice from a savvy insider
"You'll need something sticky" was her reply.
"To catch a fly."

So, Thelonius Monster makes a sticky crust and goes about the smelliest of places attracting flies to his crust. In the end, he has a fly-filled pie. There's a pretty funny complication, though, and one I don't want to spoil for the readers. Suffice it to say that Thelonius Monster is a hilarious read-aloud and will be much appreciated by kids who like dumpsters, sewers, manure, and monsters. A sure-fire hit.
***********************************
Other Poetry Friday contributions this week: An original composition from Susan at Chicken Spaghetti, Becky at Farm School shares a little Phyllis McGinley, A Fuse #8 Productions reviews Carnival of the Animals for Poetry Friday, Michele at Scholar's Blog continues to enjoy spring with A.E. Housman, and Melissa Wiley shares the (very good) work of a twelve-year-old girl over at Here in the Bonny Glen. If I've missed anyone, please drop me a comment.

More contributors! Liz at A Chair, a Fireplace and a Tea Cozy gives us some Lord Byron, Wendy contributes a Spanish poem from Pio Peep in honor of Cinco de Mayo at Blog from the Windowsill, and Christine serves up classic A.A. Milne at The Simple and the Ordinary.

6 comments:

Liz B said...

I just put my poem (actually, Byron's poem) up.

Kelly said...

Thanks, Liz. Editing to add...

Gregory K. said...

Thelonius Monster was the name of an alternative rock band here in LA in the late 80's-90's, known for occasionally descending into drunken stage shows, so it cracks me up to see them become a children's book title. They rocked, though, in the best sense, so more power to Judy Sierra for going with the name.

Kelly said...

Isn't that funny, Gregory? When I was googling about I came across Thelonius Monster sites. I lived in LA in the late 80s through 1998, but wasn't much of a club-goer myself...I was a nerdy grad student instead :)

Jen Robinson said...

I'm sorry, Kelly, but isn't nerdy grad student redundant? But seriously, it looks like a fun book! I have a young friend who I'm sure would like it.

Kelly said...

Yeah, it probably is, Jen.

I really liked this one :)