Something BIG Has Been Here

Title: Something BIG Has Been Here
Author: Jack Prelutsky
Illustrator: James Stevenson
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Publication City: New York, New York
Publication Date: 1990
ISBN: 0-688-06434-5

Summary

"Something BIG Has Been Here" is a book of poems that any child will love and use for those pesky memorization grades. Poem topics range from a lady who buys perfumes with dubious scents to the title poem about a monster with very large feet. Where else can you find four vain tortoises try to beat each other in a "slow" race, a fish who can ride a bike but can't swim, an Addle-pated Paddlepuss, and a boy digging a hole in the ceiling with a spoon.

Review

Jack Preltusky's poems are entertaining and just plain fun, which is why students love them so much. They are not the type of poems where the reader has to sit down and figure out what the poet meant, they are straight forward and some even have great punchlines. Each poem does have some sort of a rhyme scheme which will make the students feel comfortable and is a great teaching tool in finding different rhyme schemes. Prelutzsky's use of big words like trepidation, mellifluous, and succulent is a wonderful learning tool for the student. It does not insult the intelligence of the student. The students are able to figure out the meaning of the word using context clues.

Each poem is illustrated by James Stevenson. The illustrations are simple sketches. Most of the time they add little to the story. In a few they actually ruin the punchline, like in "The Barber of Shrubbery Hollow". In the poem Prelutzsky talks about a barber who doesn't know why he stays open because no one frequents his shop. It isn't until the punchline that he reveals that all the men in the town are bald!But if you look at the picture, you can tell that right away.

Professional Reviews

Amazon.com
In this delightful companion to Jack Prelutsky's The New Kid on the Block, an early worm frightens the early bird, four vain and ancient tortoises race to see who can get to the finish line last, and outrageous imaginary characters such as the "Know-Nothing Neebies" ("We're perfectly pompous, / indelibly dense, / we haven't a trace / of a semblance of sense") pop up as magically as any creature from The Phantom Tollbooth or The Wizard of Oz ever did.
In "Captain Conniption," young readers will giggle to meet the self-professed "scourge of the sea." "I'm Captain Conniption, / and up to no good, / you'll soon walk the plank / if I think that you should, / I'd show you right now / how I vanquish a foe, / but I hear my mother, / so I have to go." Other subjects near and dear to children's hearts make fabulous fodder for fun, including sibling rivalry, bad table manners, meatloaf, and bats. Illustrator James Stevenson's lively line drawings capture Prelutsky's goofy poetic antics perfectly, making this collection another essential addition to any child's library. (Ages 4 to 12) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly
If this anthology of light verse and black-and-white drawings from Prelutsky and Stevenson were a movie, it would be titled The New Kid on the Block Part II. In format, subject matter and tone, fans of the earlier volumes will rejoice in finding more of the same. These are not poems to savor for their metaphoric language or depth of thought, but are instead frivolous, rib-tickling verses about the "Ghost Who's Lost His Boo," about "Rhododendra Rosenbloom" who buys perfume from a "ten scent store," or about the "Fearless Flying Hotdogs" who are "mustered in formation / to climb, to dip, to dive." Prelutsky's comic monologues focus on such topics as "I am Tired of Being Little" or "I'm Sorry! for being a brat," or the irresistible declaration of love, "Warteena Weere Just Bit My Ear." From Twickles and Moodles to the making of Grasshopper Gumbo, the emphasis is on the preposterous. Stevenson's waggish drawings provide half the fun in this comic collection that skips lightly on the mind and tongue. Ages 5-up.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Connections

Have students create their own "Addle-pated Paddlepuss" or a Moodle without a middle and create a poem about them.
Have students write down words they did not understand and have them look them up and create a "definition drawing" where they draw the meaning of the word instead of just copying it out of the dictionary.
Have students brainstorm what the "Something BIG" was and draw it.
Have students compare & contrast poems from other Prelutsky poem books. Are they all the same, or are there differences?