Bibliographic Citation: Taback, Simms. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. Viking Juvenile, 1997. 32 pages. ISBN: 978-0670869398.
Format: Hardcover
Awards: Caldecott Honor (1998)
Age Group: Ages 3-4 Years
Annotation: An old lady eats a lot of animals in this amusing sing along.
Reflection: There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly by Simms Taback is a fun retelling of an old children's folk song favorite, however, what stands out most is Simms Taback's illustrations and the die-cut holes in the old lady's belly, which allows for children to see all the animals the old lady has eaten. As the story progresses, we see the old lady's belly get bigger and bigger. The words are handwritten on strips of paper and placed all over the page, which gives them even more visual power. There are tons of extra text and funny asides, such as a recipe for spider soup and the names of different types of birds that is way over the comprehension level of the intended listener, which all rhyme with the line, "Perhaps she'll die" so if the reader chooses, he or she can sing one of the asides instead of the "Perhaps she'll die" part. What I have found is that people either really love this song or they hate it, so if you like it, I would choose this rendition to present it to a story time group.
Categorization Tags: Caldecott Honor, Nonsense Verses, Folk Songs, Toy and movable books
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