There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Trout! - Hardcover

PreSchool-Grade 2-"There was an old lady who swallowed a trout that splished and splashed and thrashed about. It wanted out!" So begins this cumulative rhyme based upon the tried-and-true nonsense verse "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly." Sloat's version has a Pacific Northwest setting; a salmon, otter, seal, porpoise, walrus, whale, and an ocean are also consumed. The verse concludes with the woman opening her mouth, freeing the ocean and the various creatures she has ingested. Ruffins's colorful illustrations reflect both the zaniness of the rhyme and the coastal locale. The fact that the old lady survives her gastronomical ordeal might play better with sensitive members of the preschool set than the original version in which she perishes after downing a horse. While trying to rhyme porpoise with purpose seems forced, the verse as a whole will sound quite lyrical if read aloud. Storytellers may want to pair this with Simms Taback's There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (Viking, 1997), a strikingly fresh version of the old standby.
Tom S. Hurlburt, La Crosse Public Library, WI
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.