The Swamps of Sleethe
Poems From Beyond the Solar System
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Jack Prelutsky’s exploration of outer space is not for the faint of heart. No friendly little E.T.–type aliens await your arrival. There are many imaginative ways to perish in these darkly comedic cautionary verses about unexplored worlds so far beyond our solar system. The final poem is an environmental tour de force that packs a wallop. Here are poems the older reader will find great fun to memorize and rattle off to anyone who will listen! And there is a special bonus: anagrams for the kid who loves word puzzles.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The nation's first children's poet laureate fills a galaxy with weird, scary planets: his 19 poems describe places and creatures you wouldn't want to visit. On planet "Lonithor," for example, "demon birds... eviscerate their prey./ And when they've disemboweled you,/ They'll pick apart your face"; on "Ogdofod" the monopods "will snare you in their nets,/ Then process you and package you/ To feed their hungry pets." Pickering's (Skelly the Skeleton Girl) amusing illustrations suggest images for a Tim Burton movie. A tourist on "Drifig Prime" resembles a frozen Corpse Bride and someone who stumbles on Planet Grob looks a lot like Edward Scissorhands. Less broad in its appeal than most of Prelutsky's previous titles, this over-the-top intergalactic odyssey will mostly please kids capable of relishing horror and its send-ups ("You laugh till you wish / You'd expire of laughter, / And in that same second, / you mercifully do"). For added fun, about half of the planet names are anagrams; a key is listed at the end. Ages 8 up.
