The Swamps of Sleethe

January 19, 2009
The nation's first children's poet laureate fills a galaxy with weird, scary planets: his 19 poems describe places and creatures you wouldn't want to visit. On planet “Lonithor,” for example, “demon birds... eviscerate their prey./ And when they've disemboweled you,/ They'll pick apart your face”; on “Ogdofod” the monopods “will snare you in their nets,/ Then process you and package you/ To feed their hungry pets.” Pickering's (Skelly the Skeleton Girl
) amusing illustrations suggest images for a Tim Burton movie. A tourist on “Drifig Prime” resembles a frozen Corpse Bride and someone who stumbles on Planet Grob looks a lot like Edward Scissorhands. Less broad in its appeal than most of Prelutsky's previous titles, this over-the-top intergalactic odyssey will mostly please kids capable of relishing horror and its send-ups (“You laugh till you wish / You'd expire of laughter, / And in that same second, / you mercifully do”). For added fun, about half of the planet names are anagrams; a key is listed at the end. Ages 8–up.

March 1, 2009
Gr 3-6-Nineteen poems with jaunty rhythms lure readers to some very menacing planets. Almost all tell of the horrors to be found in worlds beyond our solar system: "The cooks of Gazook/Will reduce you to powder, /And use you to flavor/Their savory chowder." The bugs of Gum simply eat visitors alive. Planet Swole envelopes guests in despair, while Skreber kills them with laughter. The last poem shows alien explorers visiting an unfortunate planet where the inhabitants cause each other harm and suffer terribly. The final page turn reveals this planet to be one that readers know all too welland call home. Dark colors with sharp contrasts help define these worlds in mixed-media illustrations. Some of the unusual planet names are anagrams to solve with answers in the back of the book. Science-fiction and poetry lovers should unite over this slim and entertaining volume.Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MA

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2009
Grades 3-5 Right off its apparent that Prelutsky had a grand old time concocting a brew of made-up words, critters, and locales for this collection of intergalactic poems. And with the titles offering such gristly mouthfulsas The Globulings of Wolvar Sprod, that fun is highly contagious. The poems follow a fairly basic formula, beginning with the introduction of a bizarre planet or slavering creature and ending with dire warnings of what would happen to any children unfortunate enough to find themselves trapped on such a planet or in the clutches of such a creature. He takes particular pleasure in batting around the rhythms of these horrendous fates (Your bones are icy splinters, / And your blood solidifies. / Your flesh becomes so frigid / It begins to crystallize) that would be really quite gross if they werent so wickedly clever and well constructed. Pickerings fiendish artwork matches him note for note and, in some cases, even outshines (or is it outdarks?) the rhymes. Its all very ghastly and icky, which is precisely why its so irresistible.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2009
Prelutsky takes readers to planets they've never heard of--and wouldn't want to visit (e.g., Swole, where you can't stop crying; Skreber, where you can't stop laughing). This macabre journey isn't for the faint of heart or lazy of mind; Prelutsky's meter rewards careful ears while trusting readers to figure out words like cataclysmic and unconscionably. Pickering's comically creepy illustrations enhance the strangeness.

(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

May 1, 2009
From the poet who brought you "forty performing bananas" and "a pizza the size of the sun" come "abhorrent things that need not breathe, / And yet are quite alive." This time, Prelutsky takes readers to planets they've never heard of and probably wouldn't want to visit. There's Swole, where you can't stop crying; Skreber, where you can't stop laughing; and Wonthoo, where-well, trust us, you won't want to drink the water. Pickering's comically creepy illustrations enhance the strangeness, and although Prelutsky's typically flawless meter continually rewards the careful of ear, this is not a journey for the faint of heart or the lazy of mind. Prelutsky trusts readers to figure out words like cataclysmic and unconscionably and to be up for the macabre. The miserable planet discovered in the last poem may turn out to be a very familiar one, but how can a book be depressing when it's this silly?

(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)