by Jane Yolen (Author) Angela Matteson (Illustrator)
Poets Jane Yolen and Rebecca Kai Dotlich take fourteen Mother-Goose rhymes that have been enjoyed by generations of children and twist them in ways sure to delight modern kids. These poem pairs feature wildly different voices and perspectives, and Angela Matteson's stunning illustrations add further hilarious details.
So while Humpty Dumpty's classmate explains why he's sitting in time-out again, Matteson's art shows Humpty Dumpty as a daredevil skateboarder teetering on a wall. The poems have strong rhythm and rhyme, making Grumbles from the Town a terrific read-aloud. This lavish volume includes the original Mother Goose rhymes, endnotes that briefly describe their history, and an introduction that invites readers to imagine their own poems from unusual perspectives and "create magic."
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Gr 2-4--A nice size for group read-alouds, this collection is similar to Yolen and Dotlich's first book of twists on nursery rhymes, Grumbles from the Forest. Here, the townsfolk have their say. The original rhymes are found in the endpapers and include many that are well known. There are 14 rhymes in all, with each poet writing one poem per nursery rhyme--with the exception of the last poem, "Three Blind Mice," a collaboration. At the book's beginning there is a "Dear Reader" letter that explains perspective and invites readers to create their own verses. The imaginative poems can tickle the funny bone: Yolen creates a Humpty Dumpty who excels as the class clown and is accident-prone, while Dotlich makes the entire Dumpty family out to be a bunch of "mischievous eggs" who are often in a scrape because they are "always in places/they shouldn't be." Many of Matteson's illustrations are spreads that use soft pastel colors and full-faced cartoon characters. VERDICT While the artwork in the first anthology was more evocative, the images here are effective but on the cute side. Still, an excellent choice for writing workshops and classroom prompts.--Teresa Pfeifer, The Springfield Renaissance School, MA
Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.Jane Yolen is an author of children's books, fantasy, and science fiction, including Owl Moon, The Devil's Arithmetic, and How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? She is also a poet, a teacher of writing and literature, and a reviewer of children's literature. She has been called "the Hans Christian Andersen of America" (by Newsweek) and "the Aesop of the 20th century" (by the New York Times). Her books and stories have won the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, two Christopher Medals, the World Fantasy Award, three Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards, the Golden Kite Award, the Jewish Book Award, the World Fantasy Association's Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Association of Jewish Libraries Award, among many others.