Cautionary Verses

It was so hard to find this book on Amazon. I wanted the one with all seven books in it plus the original illustrations. I finally found it. I can't remember where I found out about this book but I checked it out of my local library and loved it and ended up getting the overpriced eBook. This is another book like max and Moritz or struwwelpeter, full of dark cautionary tales about children who do awful things, like tell lies and burn for it, or eat pieces of string (was that really a thing back then?!), or are just plain nasty. The rest of the book is about beasts and the alphabet and are, in my opinion, Subpar to th verses but I think this is a great book and well worth the time.

The content is great, but the paperback version isn't constructed very well. Pages started falling out not too long after we started reading through it.

You have to have a wicked sense of humor to appreciate this book. Not pc.

beautiful shape. thanks.

Nothing compares to these pitch perfect English ditties. And the illustrations are so much fun.

very good copy. received in timely fashion

Unlike most of the appreciators of Hilaire Belloc's comic verse for children, I first came to these wonderfully droll verses as an adult (I was brought up on Samuel Hoffenstein and Ogden Nash), but I have grown to love them as if I had known them since my earliest years (hey, that's the start of "Lord Lundy"). In his "Beasts", "Cautionary Tales" and "Peers" verses, Belloc achieves a delightful synthesis of the fearless straight-ahead gaze of childhood (in the tradition of "The Story of Augustus, Who Would Not Eat His Soup") with the style of absolutely dead-pan English humor (e.g. Stephen Potter's "Gamesmanship"). Do not neglect the verses in "Peers" and "More Peers"; "Lord Hippo" and "Lord Lucky" are the equal of "Matilda" and "Jim". Note for Lord Peter fans: Dorothy L. Sayers has Peter Wimsey quote several times from these Belloc poems.

PROS:1) THOUGHTFUL, HUMOROUS AND ENGAGING POETRY FOR KIDS OF ALL AGES2) DIFFERENT LENGTH POEMS3) CHILDREN LOVE THESE POEMS4) THE WOKE BRIGADE WILL BE LESS THAN IMPRESSEDCONS:1) THE WOKE BRIGADE WILL BE LESS THAN IMPRESSED2) CHILDREN ENGAGING WITH POETRY FOR THE FIRST TIME MAY FIND SOME POEMS LENGTHY3) LANGUAGE PROBLEMS DUE TO AMERICANISATION AND LACK OF FOCUS IN SCHOOLS ON ENGLISHWhen I was in Junior school ages 7/8-10/11 years old, which is the equivalent of years 3 to 6, I loved poetry.It was for two reasons: firstly, my dad although a scientist and mathematician, loved the arts and literature. He brought that love to me from a young age. Then, in our junior (primary) school, every week we would have a poetry lesson. All of us loved it, because the poems that were recited to us, and we recited, were of great variety. We had Kipling, Byron, Scott, and everyone’s favourite, Hilaire Belloc.One of my favourites, was Belloc’s, Henry King. Thus, when my wife radically changed careers from economist and tax specialist (for a massive government) to teaching, I had to buy her this book. Her Year 3’s are in awe of Belloc’s work. They loved “Henry King” or to give it its proper title, “ HENRY KING: WHO CHEWED BITS OF STRINGS, AND WAS EARLY CUT OFF IN DREADFUL AGONIES”. Part of my wife’s mission this year is to improve the children’s diction, specifically, articulation and annunciation. Encouraging a child to speak, opening his/her mouth wide and forming letters correctly, is something that’s missing in schools today. Consequently, we produce inarticulate and uncommunicative young people.The other problem our young people face, is the parasitic destruction and infiltration of the English language. This arises from use of the lazy, improper and crass Americanisation of one of the greatest resources and legacies Britain gave to the World. Children in my wife’s class, cannot speak without using “like” or “literally” completely out of context. Thus, her school is on a mission to ensure their children can contribute to the UK economy by being able to fully express themselves in all forms of communication.Poetry is the essence of literature which is often the entry point for a lifelong appreciation and love for literature. The internet is everywhere, and everything is almost instantaneous, however, it’s important to teach your child to love reading. Poetry, especially, Belloc, will capture the minds of the most ardent anti-book child.There is only one downside to this book. That is, the destruction of our language, and its evolution, means that some words may not be in common use in the 21st Century. This, though, can serve to improve your child’s vocabulary, beyond the simplistic, b*st*rdisation of the English language by our US cousins. BUY THIS BOOK, IT’S DOTTORE APPROVED!

A great writer of poetry to make kids toes curl.

I read 'Beastly Boys and Ghastly Girls' all the time when I was little and recently ordered a copy to see if it still pleased my adult mind! It did and brought back so many memories! So I looked in to individual authors from that compilation and came across this! It is a really quirky little book full of strange and wonderful things. Reminds me of a kind of Roald Dahl note book which was probably because Quentin Blake has illustrated it. But similar humour too! I would recommend this to anyone with a childish sense of humour, Belloc fans or Quentin Blake fans.

Anyone - adult or child - who hasn't read these gloriously witty and cynical verses is missing a great treat.I bought this book to replace one that I had when I was a child, and it was with enormous pleasure that I re-read those verses that I hadn't already committed to memory.I'm too old to learn verse by heart now, but this is a wonderful book for a child whose memory is a sponge, soaking up all sorts of things with the greatest of ease.

I have loved these poems since I was given a book of them at the age of 9, over 30 years ago. I have bought copies for my own son and other family members and I think they should be much better known and appreciated. However...........I hate this CD from the jolly musical introduction onwards. I actually can't bear to listen to it as it makes me cringe.These are not readings, but very much performances, with Martin Jarvis and Rosalind Ayres taking turns with different parts of the same poem and little touches such as wah, wah, waaaaah music (partway through the poem!) when Jim is eaten by the lion, the sound effect of a door slamming at the appropriate point in "Rebecca" and worst of all at the end of "Lord Lundy" the last line of which is,"And gracious! how Lord Lundy cried!" We have Martin Jarvis going,"Boo hoo hoo" as if we don't know what crying is!If you don't already know the poems, you may enjoy them as they are great. But if you already know and love them, I would advise extreme caution before buying this CD. Some of the poems (Jim, Matilda and The Microbe) are available on "The Nation's Favourite Children's Poems" from the BBC Radio Collection and are beautifully read by Samantha Bond and Bernard Cribbins. I was so disappointed in this CD I managed to find an old tape of these poems read by a very young Stephen Fry, and had it converted to MP3 so I could have them on my computer and iPod. The quality of those recordings is poor but the readings put this to shame.