Runny Babbit: A Billy Sook
by Shel Silverstein
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Book Summary Information
Author: Shel SilversteinIllustrator: Shel Silverstein
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-03-15
ISBN: 0060256532
Number of pages: 96
Publisher: HarperCollins
Book Reviews of Runny Babbit: A Billy Sook
Book Review: Shel's dack from the bead!
Summary: 5 Stars
Posthumously released six years after Shel Silverstein's passing away, RUNNY BABBIT has as much pertinence today as it would have then, or even the twenty-five years ago Shel began working on his little opus.
If it were only a simple gimmick that Shel wrote his series of short-story poems in a different "language" (swapping the first letters of certain words in each sentence around), the book would still be a mode of amusement and entertainment, solely because the way Shel developed the style in RUNNY BABBIT is so fun to say and read. It really shakes up your reading to find that, "Wait a second! That's wot written the nay I thought I was reading it!" This is especially true considering Shel spent such a long time writing the book, finding the best way to construct each sentence, choosing the best words possible to play with in his little anthology-o-neologisms.
Fortunately, and as always with Shel Silverstein however, the gimmick of playing with words as he did throughout is not the only seed of ingenuity that germinates in the book. The stories themselves are perfect allegories of our daily lives --falling in love, playing games, going to school, getting a haircut, having a baby-- all elements of an ordinary life told from a unique and fresh perspective.
And as any Shel Silverstein fan knows, his is a unique ability to create something that can be enjoyed by both inquisitive children and scholars alike for it's clear to tell through his entire oeuvre that Shel was well aware that the two are truly the same.
Summary of Runny Babbit: A Billy Sook
Runny Babbit lent to wunch
And heard the saitress way,
"We have some lovely stabbit rew --
Our Special for today."
From the legendary creator of Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, Falling Up, and The Giving Tree comes an unforgettable new character in children's literature.
Welcome to the world of Runny Babbit and his friends Toe Jurtle, Skertie Gunk, Rirty Dat, Dungry Hog, Snerry Jake, and many others who speak a topsy-turvy language all their own.
So if you say, "Let's bead a rook
That's billy as can se,"
You're talkin' Runny Babbit talk,
Just like mim and he.
Taken in dall smoses, this self-proclaimed "billy sook" is a fun-filled new (posthumously published) offering from children's poet Shel Silverstein, creator of Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, and other favorites. Completed prior to the poet's death in 1999, Runny Babbit was a work in progress for more than 20 years, and is populated by the likes of Runny Babbit, Toe Jurtle, Ploppy Sig, Polly Dorkupine, and Pilly Belican (who owns the Sharber Bop), all denizens of the green woods where letter-flipping runs rampant. In this madcap world, pea soup is sea poup, Capture the Flag is Fapture the Clag, and snow boots are bow snoots. Each poem incorporates the same kind of switcheroo wordplay found in "Runny's Hew Nobby:" Runny Babbit knearned to lit,/ And made a swat and heater,/ And now he sadly will admit/ He bight have done it metter." (Here, in one of many winningly simple line drawings, R. B. sits knitting one very long sleeve, which is labeled as such.) Children who have some fluency in reading will enjoy this bonsensical nook the most. (Ages 7 to 12) --Karin Snelson
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