Grumbles from the Town

September 1, 2016

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.

June 1, 2016
This quirky Mother Goose book turns convention on its head.Each of the 14 selections contemporizes a traditional rhyme and pairs it with a rebuttal or an aside by a grumpy protagonist. The vegetarian princess in "Sing a Song of Sixpence" waxes poetic about freeing blackbirds while (inexplicably) dealing with "four-and-twenty cantaloupes / stashed inside my jeans." Her grumpy maid, however, launches into an unwieldy tirade about avian-infested pies. "A bloke poked his head out the window. / King wants another pie! he cried. / I mumbled a few choice words, I did. / Who, I ask you, in their right mind / bakes pies of birds?" The double-page format facilitates the flow from reworked verse to denouement. Spoon is pleased with her rescue from fiddling cats and moon-leaping cows, and Plum rants against Jack Horner's skewering thumb. Matteson's acrylic-and-colored-pencil illustrations on wood board smoothly incorporate racial diversity; Jack Horner is black, and King Cole and his daughter have light-brown skin and kinky hair. The artwork is lively and fanciful--Humpty rides a skateboard, and Miss Muffet's plotting spider strums a banjo. However, the collection is in want of an audience. Rather than poems clearly written for children, this latest Yolen/Dotlich collaboration (Grumbles from the Forest, 2013) comes across as a creative-writing exercise. The original nursery rhymes and historical notes are appended (to the detriment of the new rhymes). An inventive miss. (Picture book. 5-9)

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August 1, 2016
Grades 1-4 The authors of Grumbles from the Forest (2013) offer 14 creative and broad-ranging, if uneven, spins on Mother Goose nursery rhymes, employing varying speakers, characters, and viewpoints, some from familiar tales and others newly created. In Sing a Song of Sixpence, a vegetarian princess won't eat blackbird pie. In one of two Little Jack Horner poems, Jack's brother comments, Ruined! One perfect plum. / Spoiled by a germy thumb, while on the facing page, the plum laments the thumb-poking intrusion. In comics-style panels and set in a grocery store, Three Blind Mice finds the bespectacled trio explaining, We were not blind, / just near of sight, then animatedly recounting a chaotic cheese-foraging incident in which they craftily escaped the manager's carving knifewielding wife, tails intact. Whimsical, cartoonish acrylic-and-pencil illustrations incorporate playful details and decorative page embellishments, blending classic scenarios and contemporary settings and elements. Though the original versions as well as some background information are appended, this will likely resonate more with those already familiar with the tales. A playful addition to any poetry section.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)