There was an old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

Illustrated by: Simms Taback (Caldecott Honor Book)                

Summary:

There was an Old Lay Who Swallowed a Fly, Is a retelling of the poem that was first heard in the 1940’s and illustrated by modern artwork. The Poem is about an old woman that swallows a fly and then decided to swallow another critter to get the first one. Fly, to spider then to bird and we all know how it ends. The old woman dies…

Personal Evaluation:

Pros: It’s hard for a writer to take a poem that is known by so many and place their own twist upon it and still stay true to the story. What Simms Taback has done is he left the poem as is and used his Illustrations to make this retelling his own. Throughout the book and on every page there are additional rhymes with artwork that adds just a little bit more to the story. These are placed in a way that does not distract from the main rhyme.

Another aspect of the book is the cutouts in certain pages that show the transition of the story line from fly to spider to bird and so on.

Cons: The one thing that I noticed while reading of the poem was the different size fonts on different color backgrounds. This seemed to slow down the reading and felt as if I was losing my place between sentences when I was not.

Final: Simms brings the tale of the old woman that swallowed a fly to life with nice illustrations and the other unusual elements such as the cutouts and side images. It’s the perfect story for a quick read at bed time or a good way to introduce a classic poem to the newer generations. Regardless of why you read this to your children, please stress to them Not to Eat a Horse!

Additional Information:

Publisher: Viking Juvenile (1997)
ISBN: 0670869392
Book Type: 32 Page; Color Hard Cover