By: Judy Sierra Publisher: Voyager Books Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Voyager Books Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 56 Publication Date: September 01, 2005 Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Old Monster Goose has turned Mother Goose's world of nursery rhymes inside out! Here she presents twenty-five deliciously disgusting poems, filled with rodents and maggots, zombies and ghouls, spiders, and of course, monsters.
Amazon.com Review: Something has happened to good old Mother Goose--she's not the same kindly storyteller she once was. In fact, that isn't Mother Goose tapping away at her laptop computer at all. It's Monster Goose! With a diabolical grin beneath her granny glasses and fangs peeking out from her beak, this twisted matriarch wreaks marvelously evil havoc on 25 favorite nursery rhymes. Now featuring ghouls, vampire bats, and cannibals, these verses appeal to the perverse corner in every reader's mind. Just a taste:
There was an old zombie who lived in a shoe. She had so many maggots, she didn't know what to do. So she soaked them in soapsuds and painted them green. She'll be giving them out next Halloween.
Not for the faint of heart, Judy Sierra's grisly rhymes are accompanied by such fabulously hideous illustrations by Jack E. Davis (the Zack Files series, Bedhead, etc.), any potential nightmares will be diverted by helpless giggles. Readers will delight in identifying the original classic nursery rhymes behind such titles as "Mary Had a Vampire Bat," "Weird Mother Hubbard," "Hush, Little Monster," and "Werewolf Bo-Creep." Sierra and Davis are an ingenious pair indeed. For more ghoulish nonsense, don't miss Sierra's The House that Drac Built. And for still more playful poems, try her Antarctic Antics: A Book of Penguin Poems. (Ages 5 and older) --Emilie Coulter
Great Book for Halloween! Some people may not like this book much, the concepts are a bit scary, but my girls LOVE this book. The can recite Mary had a vampire bat and many others without looking at the book. It was a huge topic of conversation this past fall and the girls picked it to read every night in October. My girls were read Mother Goose from a very young age, and they adore the fact that something as well-known as mother goose can be made light of. They love word-plays and the fantasy books, they know there is no such thing as monsters, they only use them as excuses when they want to sleep in mommy's bed. My oldest is afraid of most things but yet she finds this book extremely enjoyable. I used to skip some of the poems, but I don't bother anymore, they are not offended and neither am I. ENJOY!
Monstorously Funny and Mildly Creepy! Mother Goose may never be the same...Sierra's Monster Goose looks like the traditional frumpy goose, but look more closely...yes, there it is. Monster Goose has that evil gleam in her eye, not to mention a discreet pair fangs...not only does she look more sinister than Mother Goose, her tales are decidedly creepier and CHOCK full of monsters, snakes, bats, slugs, and creepy crawlies of all kinds! What we get in Monster Goose is a creepy parody of our most favored nursery rhymes! Sierra covers Hickory Dickory Dock (Slithery Dithery Dock), Mary Had a Little Lamb (Mary Had a Vampire Bat), Jack and Jill (Jill and Jaques), Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (Twinkle Twinkle Little Slug), and many more!! Some are cute, clever, witty, and just the right amount of creepy...while others not so much, thankfully where that happens, Davis' illustrations make up for it! The illustrations here are simply delightful...Mary with her vampire bat is a green, Goth chick (too funny); little Jack Horner is a green cannibal, complete with nose ring; Bo Peep has vampire sheep peeking around a tree at the unsuspecting werewolf; the zaniness is just perfect for this horrible nursery rhymes!
Overall, I give it four stars, the text and illustrations are fun, creepy and a perfect match for one another...it only gets four stars because not all of the rhymes work (some are strained and aren't all that funny or cute). Obviously you'd be doing yourself a favor to add this to your reading repertoire around Halloween, but there's simply NO reason not to add a little Monster Goose to your reading list at any time of the year! I'll be buying a copy of this for my permanent library! As a side now, I noticed, when I went to get some publishing information for when I post this to my blog, that many reviewers/parents complained about the use of gasoline and turpentine in a couple of the rhymes...if your kids would think it was ok to use those things for drinking or brushing their teeth, you haven't done your job as a parent. As for the calls that this would frighten kids...well, that's rather the point...but really, this is more campy creepy that genuinely scary, again it's a matter of not just how children perceive it...it's how YOU treat it as well. These are silly rhymes that take a monsterific twist on the classic Mother Goose nursery rhymes.
Love it! Apparently this is either a love it or hate it book, so add me to the former. As to the scary illustrations, look at the cover. It is very indicative of the style of illustrations inside, so anyone who is suprised that this *monster* book has monsterous illustrations wasn't paying attention to the front. What are they supposed to look like, Care Bears? And as to the dangerous issues of ingesting gasoline and turpintine, I just used it as an educational experience and told my son that since these were made up creatures they could do unreal things, like drink poison, which we as humans could never, ever do because we could die. And, wonder of wonders, he got it. Have a little faith in your kids to separate fantasy from reality - if they can't, you have no business reading them monster books anyway.
This is a very clever, fun book and I wish it had been even longer. We got it first from the library but bought our own copy after the first reading because it is one that we parents don't get bored with reading over and over. The rhymes are great and there is always some new detail to discover in the pictures.
My 5 year old daughter's favorite book I guess I should start by saying she loves Tim Burton's movies, so it was no surprise to me when she picked out this book from the library and wouldn't put it down for weeks.
I like it too. The stories are clever, but a couple of the verses don't quite work. The best thing about this book, though, is the illustrations.
Hilarious and Fun! My son brought home this book from school. Everyone in the family liked it so much that I had to purchase a copy for us to have at home. It is a lot of fun for "kids of any ages" (and I mean adults too). It is extremely clever and funny. I recommend it for everyone.
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