Aunt Grizelda's Treasury of Grim and Grisly Rhymes

Gr 6 Up—A collection of nine rhyming moral tales where children meet their untimely but wholly avoidable ends. The subject matter spans from the serious (the dangers of playing with matches and walking on thin ice) to the lighthearted (spending too much time playing video games and splashing in puddles). The lack of focus coupled with a highly moralistic tone—most poems are illustrated with a stamp noting "lesson learned" at the close—make this a hard collection to recommend an audience. While some of the entries have a surreal sense of humor, such as suggesting that eating worms as a child means you will one day grow up to be a cannibal, other poems seek to warn youth about very real dangers—and both are expressed using the same tone. Younger children may have trouble separating the silly from the serious, and older ones may question the merit of the content and balk at the book's brevity. As a read-aloud, the collection offers similar rhythm and meter throughout, making it a quick, cohesive read but giving each poem less to offer as a standalone. The accompanying illustrations are reminiscent of cartoon strips and are free from blood, guts, and gore.