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Gargling with Jelly
Hilarious, lyrical, outrageous and serious poems all rub shoulders in this collection. Naughty children with nasty habits, cartoon heroes that come to life, lonely caretakers, unhappy ghosts, fantastical creatures with crazy names, giants, goblins, vampires, mermaids ...there's never a dull moment in this marvelously quirky and refreshing brew.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 15, 2022
Gargling with Jelly is a collection of poems filled with children who boast about picking their noses and aunts whose stomachs filled with every sort of semi-digested food shows through their skin and a creature who sees no point in getting on the ark and other surprising and startling stories.
A half-a-dozen of the poems disturbed me, an adult, with their solemnity and hang-it-all messages. But that just could be me.
A 1001 Children's Books You Must Read book.
A half-a-dozen of the poems disturbed me, an adult, with their solemnity and hang-it-all messages. But that just could be me.
A 1001 Children's Books You Must Read book.
July 15, 2019
Brian Patten was a staple of my childhood and he along with Adrian Mitchell sparked my lifelong love of poetry when I used to listen to them on Radio 5 back when it started out as a children's version of Radio 4.
Gargling with Jelly is a collection of comedy poems, many with a sting in the tail that beg to be read aloud. The rhymes and rhythms are fairly simple and the bizarre topics ranging from the glory of snot to the fact that the word orange has no rhyme make these the ideal way to introduce young children to the glories of poetry.
Not all the poems are silly however and that's what makes this anthology so good. Amid tales of PE teachers who dream of being Tarzan and little sisters who are really little witches there are some serious ones in here that leave you pondering - The post apocalyptic 'The children's fall out shelter' is rather dark and 'burying the dog in the garden' is quite sad as children try and deal with being told that animals have no souls.
Loved this book as a kid and revisiting it as an adult there's till lots to amuse. Recommended.
Gargling with Jelly is a collection of comedy poems, many with a sting in the tail that beg to be read aloud. The rhymes and rhythms are fairly simple and the bizarre topics ranging from the glory of snot to the fact that the word orange has no rhyme make these the ideal way to introduce young children to the glories of poetry.
Not all the poems are silly however and that's what makes this anthology so good. Amid tales of PE teachers who dream of being Tarzan and little sisters who are really little witches there are some serious ones in here that leave you pondering - The post apocalyptic 'The children's fall out shelter' is rather dark and 'burying the dog in the garden' is quite sad as children try and deal with being told that animals have no souls.
Loved this book as a kid and revisiting it as an adult there's till lots to amuse. Recommended.
June 17, 2021
A collection of poems for children. It seems to be trying very hard to be Shel Silverstein, but falls hard and far from the mark. Silverstein knew how to walk the line between silly/funny and outright strange; Patten does not, and sometimes wanders into weirdly and borderline-inappropriately dark areas. Just...no.
May 23, 2022
This book is full with poems. My favourite is the bossy young tree. the reason I loved this poem so much is because it is about a tree who is bossy and i can relate because I am also very bossy. The tree also wants to be a leader and a good one. The author uses personification in a lot of poems so you might relate to most poems.
By Elizabeth
By Elizabeth
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March 22, 2022This is the poetry book that led me to realise I loved poetry.
July 16, 2022
For kids to read out LOUD
November 2, 2015
A book of silly verse � some of which is a lot better than others � which I first came across when I was 11. We performed a somewhat static version of the poem ‘Cousin Lesley Took a Pill� as our contribution to the school play that year. I can see why my teacher chose it but I think I would like to revisit it again with as an adult with my own class and make it more fun and more dynamic. There are also a number of short poems that can be enjoyed if the longer ones seems a bit off-putting initially.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
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