Awful Ogre's Awful Day - Hardcover

Prelutsky, Jack

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688077781 ISBN 13: 9780688077785

Publisher: Greenwillow Books, 2001

Synopsis

It's pouring. The wind is blowing down trees. Awful Ogre's rattlesnake wakes him. He tickles his piranha, scatters his rats, and disengages his leeches. Another wonderful day is about to begin.

Awful Ogre, huge, hungry, horrible--and totally lovable, will steal the heart of every reader. Larger than life--larger, in fact, than all other ogres, Awful Ogre packs into one day enough excitement, imagination, emotion, and sheer ebullience to last most of us a lifetime

Jack Prelutsky and Paul O. Zelinsky have created a tour de force of epic proportions and infinite appeal.

About this title

Review

How awful is this green-haired, one-eyed ogre? So awful his name is Awful Ogre. Fortunately, he takes some time out of his awfully busy ogre schedule to describe his routine, poem by poem, from the moment his pet rattlesnake awakens him to a touching bedtime scene--as rhythmic and tender as Goodnight Moon, but with scorpions and cacti. As it turns out, the ogre has many delightful hobbies, from dancing ("I dance with abandon, / Bravura, and zest, / I carom off boulders / And beat on my chest") to singing "stirring ogre melodies" to bone collecting to boasting to watching TV. He is particularly proud of his centuries-old garden:

Because of my ramshackle patches
Where scrofulous weeds rule unchecked,
I've earned from the trolls and the goblins
A measure of grudging respect.

Jack Prelutsky, creator of more than 30 books of verse, is clearly in his element here, though he claims that "Any resemblance between Awful Ogre and the poet is purely coincidental." And, Paul O. Zelinsky, who received the 1998 Caldecott Medal for Rapunzel explodes into zany genius in this gruesomely gorgeous picture book, perfect for any 8-year-old boy in the peak of his giddy gross-out phase. We could spend hours scouring the pages for tiny details, lovingly etched by Zelinsky, from a tiny protesting man in a fish food container next to a piranha to the artful steam above the ogre's bowl of scream of wheat. This book is a masterpiece. He may smell of weasel grease, drink gargoyle bile, eat scrambled legs, and grow carnivorous roses, but Awful Ogre is a friend your kids won't mind having. (Ages 6 and older) --Karin Snelson

About the Author

Jack Prelutsky is the best-selling author of more than fifty books of poetry, including The New Kid on the Block, illustrated by James Stevenson, and Stardines Swim High Across the Sky, illustrated by Carin Berger. Jack Prelutsky lives in Washington State.

Paul O. Zelinsky is the illustrator of Anne Isaac's Dust Devil and creator of the now-classic interactive book called The Wheels on the Bus. His retelling of Rapunzel was awarded the 1998 Caldecott Medal. Rumpelstitlskin, Hansel and Gretel and Swamp Angel with different authors all garnered Paul a Caldecott Honor. Since 1991 Paul O. Zelinsky has lived in the same apartment with his wife Deborah in northern Brooklyn, New York.

Edition details

• Publisher: Greenwillow Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0688077781
• ISBN 13: 9780688077785
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Zelinsky Paul O.