Review - There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey!

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey! (There Was an Old Lady)
by Lucille Colandro
illustrated by Jared D. Lee
Date: 2016
Publisher: Cartwheel Books
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: library

The old lady is at it again, and this time she's swallowing a Turkey... she's always been quirky!

You won't believe why this old lady swallowed a turkey, a ball, a hat, a balloon, a boat, some wheels, and a horn of plenty!

Read this book and find out why!

(synopsis from Goodreads)

Okay, I get that this is based on that poem about the old lady who swallowed a fly. But this is just bad. And the old lady, with her hinged jaw that she uses to gobble up (heh) a live turkey is just disturbing. She swallows turkeys and boats and balloons and hats because she's "quirky"? It sounds to me like the old lady has pica, and she really should get that checked out.

And there's a whole series of these books? Yikes. I wasn't that impressed with what I saw here. A ball, a hat, and wheels aren't exactly interesting things to swallow, and I couldn't figure out how they were even connected at first. She eventually regurgitates them all to make a parade float, but... Actually, no. Just no. This is ridiculously stupid.

If you like watching old people swallow things and then barf them back up, you might like this book. Otherwise, you probably won't.

Premise: 2/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 2/5
Illustrations: 2/5
Originality: 1/5

Enjoyment: 0/5

Overall: 1.17 out of 5