I don't think I have to tell you what happens here. Poor Jim. Dark, funny, and cautionary. This one will keep them from running away at the zoo!

(Not for very young or very timid children. A sense of humor is a must. I loved it.)

http://shelf-employed.blogspot.com ( )

Delightfully macabre! ( )

I grew up on this poem. My mother had it memorized, and we used to beg her to recite it for us. Accordingly, this book is her Little Christmas present. I've borrowed it back.

Now, there's always somebody who comments that little things like dead children are inappropriate for, well, children. If you're one of those people - don't buy this book, save the rest of us the angst. Jim DOES get eaten by a lion, there IS no happy ending, you HAVE been warned. If you're still unsure, the poem is in the public domain, so you can google it and pre-read before you buy.

With that said, since the poem IS available at Project Gutenberg and elsewhere, I'm not going to spend much effort reviewing the text. It's gory and over-the-top and the reaction of the parents when finding about their dead child ("Well, he'd never do as he were told!") is hilariously understated. It's the sort of thing impressionable young children beg their parents to recite over and over again on the train.

Let's talk about the art, though. This is a pop-up book, the pop-ups and flaps seem *reasonably* sturdy (but I'm not pulling at them THAT hard). There are plenty of funny details hidden in the art. For example, the line "They even took him to the zoo. But there it was a dreadful fate befell him, which I now relate" is written on a fold-out map (safely glued to the page, you won't be losing it) of the zoo, with the bylaws on the other side. The map is full of signs along the lines of "It's your own time you're wasting" and "Do not stroke the snakes", and the bylaws have a similarly long-winded list of rules, including "Strictly no ostentatious mating displays" and "No silly voices".

And of course, there's the scene where he gets eaten, which is where flaps really come in handy. First you have the little boy, and then you pull the flap and the boy is eaten but the words remain.

It's clever, it's funny, it's a classic poem - I may buy another for me. And it probably won't warp your kids for life. I, after all, am mostly sane :) ( )