The Penguin Book of Nonsense Verse (Penguin Poetry) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140587578 ISBN 13: 9780140587579

Publisher: Penguin, 1995

Synopsis

A collection of nonsense verse that includes classic verse from nonsense greats such as Lear, Carroll, Belloc and Nash, together with the very best of contemporary proponents.

About this title

Review:

Dancing flamingos, poodle strudel, Glurpy Slurpy Skakagralls: The Puffin Book of Nonsense Verse has them all. Galumph with Lewis Carroll and his "Jabberwocky." Meet James Whitcomb Riley's lugubrious whing-whang and A.B. Paterson's football hurling emus. Learn to plant a mailbox, why yaks should be commended and the fate of Auntie Flo (who became a crow). And while you're at it, don't forget to chortle at Blake's fabulous (or as Lewis Carroll would say, frabjous) drawings: a Greenland whale lounging in her nightie, Mother Hubbard's pipe-smoking, flute-playing, goat-riding dog, along with dozens more.

Like this excerpt from Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach:

We may see the venemous Pink-Spotted Scrunch
Who can chew up a man with one bite.
It likes to eat five of them roasted for lunch
And eighteen for supper at night.
But who cares! Let us go from the horrible hill!
Let us roll! Let us bowl! Let us plunge!

Blake has searched high and low to bring us some of the best nonsense verse in the English language. Along with time-tested favourites by Edward Lear, Ogden Nash, A.E. Housman and Spike Milligan, he includes the lesser known (but no less brilliant) Roger McGough and Jack Prelutsky. Also making rare and welcome appearances are John Updike and John Ciardi, two writers so well known for their serious writing that their extraordinarily silly poems are often (regrettably) overlooked. --Martha Silano

About the Author:

Quentin Blake has illustrated more than three hundred books and was Roald Dahl's favourite illustrator. In 1980 he won the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal. In 1999 he became the first ever Children's Laureate and in 2013 he was knighted for services to illustration.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0140587578
• ISBN 13: 9780140587579
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288
• Illustrator: Blake Quentin