Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant is a collection of poems by Children's Poet Laureate, Jack Prelutsky that introduces the value of playing with words through poetry. Familiar animals are poetically mangled together with everyday objects to create mythical-type creatures such as the Toadster, the Cloktopus, and the Umbrellaphant to name a few.
Combining animals with everyday objects to create new creatures will produce giggles in Prelutsky fans. Humorous creatures created give rise to the reader creating their own. After the last poem in the book, there is even a blank, lined, notebook page to encourage readers to write their own mixed up creature poem. Exquisitely crafted collage illustrations by Carin Berger bring the make believe creatures to life.
One of my favorite poems in the book is the "Tweasels of the Forest." A wonderful rhyme scheme is utilized to enhance the sound the tweasels make in the mind of the reader. I could almost hear them as they "tweasled" across the forest. The "Pop-Up Toadsters" stands out and the illustrations of green hopping toasters will bring smiles to faces of readers. The ability of Prelutsky to bring together two seemingly incongruent objects such as a toad and a toaster is heightened by the play on words technique of the poem.
Recommended for grades 2-6.
Keywords: poetry, imaginary animals, word-play.
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