Alligator Pie

 By Dennis Lee
Illustrated by Frank Newfeld

A Canadian classic.  It's got a few poems in here about places in Ontario.  Lots of CanCon.  But most of the themes are universal.

They're actually well written poems.  The difference between this author and most "children's authors" is that this guy writes poems for adults.  He's an actual poet.  So everything rhymes properly without much repetition and the rhythm matches up and you don't have to re-read the same line twenty times trying to make it work.

 This edition is the collector's edition, so it's got some notes from the author.  The idea was to create modern nursery rhymes about things that they actually encounter rather than be about ha'penny and clinkers and princesses and paupers.

My daughter is much less interested in many of these rhymes, mostly because she's too young; they're longer and she doesn't understand most of them yet.  She's absolutely crazy for the main poem, Alligator Pie, though.  She's constantly reciting it under her breath.

The pictures in this book are so dated, but I love them.  It's a shame that this edition is out of print.  It was only printed in 2001. 

Oh, crap, that was 14 years ago.  I'm old.