Spring is in the air, and everyone's favorite old lady is ready to celebrate!
That zany old lady is back--and with a serious case of spring fever! This time she's swallowing items to make the most of the season...with a beautiful garden!
With rhyming text and funny illustrations, this lively version of the classic song will appeal to young readers with every turn of the page--a wacky story for the first day of spring!
From the Publisher
Praise for the There Was an Old Lady series:"Lee's comically absurd cartoons will have children chuckling..." - SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL
Children's Literature - Wendy Miller Kibler
Colandro gives a garden-themed spin on the classic children’s song “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.” Instead of swallowing creatures of increasing sizes, she swallows items associated with a garden: dirt, seeds, rain, sunlight, gardening gloves, and a rake. She also swallows a frog, which of course is not needed for a garden; but perhaps it made for a better title than “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Dirt.” At the end, instead of dying as in the original song, this particular old lady not only lives, but burps and barfs out a garden! Most children love to hear tales of bodily functions, so the ending should be a hit with little ones. In two places the narrator asks a question, which is a great opportunity to allow children to move from passive listeners to active participants. In addition, a teachable moment comes near the end of the story when the old lady realizes she should not have swallowed a rake followed by her good manners after she burps. It is confusing, though, that the entire book is written in past tense, identifying items that the old lady swallowed, except for the gloves, which she apparently loves to swallow on an ongoing basis. The illustrations are bright and energetic, and the old lady’s mouth is rightly exaggerated enough for the reader to believe she certainly could swallow just about anything. Beyond the mere pleasure of the story and its accompanying illustrations, the repetition in the text helps children become more fluent readers. In addition, the Scholastic website offers teachers classroom resources to use as adjuncts to the story. Reviewer: Wendy Miller Kibler; Ages 5 to 7.
School Library Journal
07/01/2015
PreS-Gr 1—Yet another take on "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly!" In Colandro and Lee's ninth book about this old woman, first she swallows a frog (she was in a fog.) Then she proceeds to swallow some dirt, some seeds, the rain, the sunlight, some gloves, and finally a rake. ("That was a mistake!"). In the end, she burps out a colorful garden. The frog is returned to his flowery environment wishing everyone a "Happy Spring!" As in other books in the series, Lee has given the woman a very large mouth, so swallowing so many varied items is easy for her, except, of course, the rake. In the cartoon drawings, the colors are vivid and the illustrations are large, filling the spreads. VERDICT A possible choice for a springtime storyhour and an additional purchase for larger libraries.—Elaine Lesh Morgan, formerly at Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR
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