Summary:
In this wonderful collection of poems, we are introduced to the Umbrellaphant who doesn't allow the sun or rain to bother his day, The Lynx of Chain and his fear of rust, and the frazzled Alarmadillos. This is only a small sampling of the wonderful creatures Jack Prelutsky has invented to amuse and entertain us.
My Evaluation:
This book is deliciously clever. Half of the fun is figuring out the combinations, and the other half is the wonderfully worded poems. It is filled with several layers of understanding and would serve as an excellent book to help stretch children's imaginations. This is the ideal read aloud book. There are so many opportunities for discussion, the text is engaging, the illustrations are vivid and beautiful, and it is a book that would capture the children's attention. It is a fabulous addition to the library, and I loved it so much that I am planning on buying it for my niece.
Reviews:
Cardon, D. (2006). Book Pick Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant by Jack Prelutsky. School Library Journal. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6374376.html
Prelutsky is one of the best word crafters in the business, and this collection does not disappoint. Each entry is about a creature that is part animal and part inanimate object. For instance, the Alarmadillos have alarm clocks for bodies, and the Ballpoint Penguins can write with their beaks. The poems are full of fun and wit, with wordplay and meter that never miss a beat. The whimsical illustrations use cut-print media, old-fashioned print images, and a variety of paper textures to create a rich visual treat well suited to the poetry. The detail in the mixed-media pictures makes this a good choice for individual or lap reading, but the poetry begs to be read aloud. This is definitely a "do not miss" poetry pick.
Children's Review Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant: And Other Poems. (2006). Publisher's Weekly. Retrieved from http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-054317-4
Berger's (Not So True Stories & Unreasonable Rhymes ) inventive, textured collages add up to a visual treat in this first-rate collection of Prelutsky poems. Readers will behold not only the bold umbrellaphant, whose trunk is literally an umbrella, but also more than a dozen other amusing creatures who (similar to the hybrid mythical beasts of Prelutsky's Scranimals ) are a cross between an actual animal and an inanimate object, and exhibit combined traits of both. "The Solitary Spatuloon," its body shaped like a black spatula with wings, cries "Syrup!" plaintively, flipping pancakes with its tail. ("Its tail, we note, is well designed/ With this peculiar task in mind.") Especially clever are "The Tearful Zipperpotamuses," whose bodies are zippers that keep unzipping, "So they worry and they fret/ That their insides will fall outside,/ Though this hasn't happened yet." The clever rhymes do not miss a beat, and Berger's collages brim with both unusual visual humor and irony. She pictures the Clocktopus ("Its tentacles in tempo/ With the clock upon its face") with as many clocks, pocket watches and wristwatches as it has appendages, none of them synchronized; and "The Ballpoint Penguins" swoop like ice skaters on lined pages used for cursive writing exercises—the critters "do little else but write and write./ Although they've nothing much to say,/ They write and write it anyway." Young readers will behold a wonderful, fantastically silly book. Ages 4-up.
My Suggestions for Use in a Library Setting:
I would use this book as the beginning of an initiative to decorate the children's section of the library. Every month we would read a book during reading time and then give the children a project to complete that will decorate the walls of the library the next month. This month the children would be tasked to create their own imaginary creature with a combination of a real creature and an inanimate object.
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