Sunday, June 23, 2019

Review - Tiny Tim: Verses for Children

Tiny Tim: Verses for Children
selected by Jill Bennett
illustrated by Helen Oxenbury
Date: 1981
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Reading level: C
Book type: illustrated poetry collection
Pages: 40
Format: e-book
Source: Open Library

An illustrated collection of short poems by English, American, and anonymous authors.

(synopsis from Amazon; see it on Goodreads)

This book is supposed to be hilarious. It's actually horrifying. What sane person thinks that showing a child drowning his baby brother, a man who puts his head in the oven until his eyes explode, a hunter blowing his head off with a rifle, and a kid being eaten by a bear are funny incidents? Seriously... What was wrong with people in 1981?!

I just have to share this page; this isn't even one of the worst ones:


Okay, so the idea is sort of funny. But including a picture of a man's head graphically exploding is just too much. I would've been traumatized by this book as a child. (I'll spare you the page with the hunter shooting himself in the head. It even has blood spatter.)

This goes firmly into the "what were they thinking?!" file. Not funny.

Premise: 1/5
Meter: 2/5
Writing & Editing: 2/5
Illustrations: 1/5
Originality: 2/5

Enjoyment: 0/5

Overall Rating: 1.14 out of 5 ladybugs

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