Creature Carnival. This item is unavailable.Creature Carnival

This collection of twenty-six poems features some of the creepiest, funniest, most bizarre, and fascinating creatures from myth, legend, and popular culture. Marilyn Singer has written more than sixty books for children and young adults, including Monster Museum, the companion book to Creature Carnival. She and her husband divide their time between Brooklyn, New York, and Washington, Connecticut. Gris Grimly made his picture book debut with Monster Museum. Since then he has illustrated Pinocchio and his own Wicked Nursery Rhymes. Gris Grimly lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Grade 2-4-A distinguished author and poet combines her sure sense of wordplay with Grimly's command of the eerie and absurd to create an original introduction to 33 fabled beasts. Readers are invited into the carnival-"Our flying horse suggests you duck/Brer Rabbit says, 'Hey, try your luck.'/Then watch Godzilla stomp a truck./It's Creature Carnival time"-and are then introduced to each creature through a clever poem that captures its essence and through wonderfully engaging ink illustrations. Neither the drawings nor the poems seem forced-each one seems exactly suited to its chosen subject. Godzilla's giant foot is accompanied by an ingenious summary of every Godzilla film: "Fateful day,/Atomic ray./Dino mutation, /Terrified nation." The poems will bring appreciative smiles from readers who know the stories-and for those who don't, the book concludes with a glossary. Not since Jack Prelutsky and Arnold Lobel teamed up in Nightmares (1976) and The Headless Horseman Rides Tonight (1980, both Greenwillow) has there been a better collection of poems celebrating the weird. Creature Carnival is worth any admission price.-Kathleen Whalin, York Public Library, ME
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Gr. 2-4, younger for reading aloud. "See fabled beasts not found in cages. / Spend your parents' hard-earned wages." In this picture-book collection of poems, a creepy Victorian carnival barker, all high-collar cape, stovepipe hat, and menacing invitations, draws a motley crew of kids into the Creature Carnival. In each poem, the barker introduces a new fantastic being from mythology and literature--among them, a mermaid, intent on winning the Miss Ocean pageant, despite having drowned a few judges; and a dragon who is "pleased by pearls / and sometimes he eats boys and girls." Singer includes many specific references to mythology and folklore that may fly over kids' heads, even with the aid of the appended glossary. But the rhymed couplets bounce with rhythm and gleefully sinister words that will appeal to children, and Grimly's scribbly ink-and-watercolor illustrations create a gruesome menagerie of characters that are as buffoonish and appealing as they are grotesque. A playful collection of shivery delights that teachers will want to use in both poetry and mythology units. Gillian Engberg
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