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Nonsense!
What's as deliciously silly as Edward Lear's verse? Valorie Fisher's sly, imaginative illustrations, that's what! Using everything from etchings to ephemera to her own wildly patterned artwork, Fisher re-creates Lear's world -- where people waltz with flies, ride geese out to sea, and build balloons to examine the moon -- in a fresh and ever-so-fanciful way.
36 pages, Hardcover
First published October 26, 2004
22 people want to read
About the author
Edward Lear
762 books207 followersEdward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, who is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularised.
His principal areas of work as an artist were threefold: as a draughtsman employed to make illustrations of birds and animals; making coloured drawings during his journeys, which he reworked later, sometimes as plates for his travel books; and as a (minor) illustrator of Alfred Tennyson's poems.
As an author, he is known principally for his popular nonsense collections of poems, songs, short stories, botanical drawings, recipes and alphabets. He also composed and published twelve musical settings of Tennyson's poetry.
His principal areas of work as an artist were threefold: as a draughtsman employed to make illustrations of birds and animals; making coloured drawings during his journeys, which he reworked later, sometimes as plates for his travel books; and as a (minor) illustrator of Alfred Tennyson's poems.
As an author, he is known principally for his popular nonsense collections of poems, songs, short stories, botanical drawings, recipes and alphabets. He also composed and published twelve musical settings of Tennyson's poetry.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
January 28, 2016
Review to come-
Random book thoughts/notes
Very different art. Clip art, original and photo mixes? Cute, whimsical rhymes.
Random book thoughts/notes
Very different art. Clip art, original and photo mixes? Cute, whimsical rhymes.
April 9, 2019
This is an entertaining book containing myriad limericks written by Edward Lear and featuring silly people from all across Europe. The poems are fun to read and the mixed media illustrations are colorful and just as whimsical as the words.
I really appreciated that the illustrator chose to include some definitions of words that may be unfamiliar for younger readers as well as to indicate where in the world most of the cited locales can be found, especially since I did not recognize many of the places.
I learned a bit more about Mr. Lear from reading the last pages of the book. For example, I did not know that he was "the twentieth child in a family of twenty-one" and that his eldest sister raised and educated him.
Also, I realized that Mr. Lear was an accomplished artist as well as a poet. I really enjoyed reading this book.
I really appreciated that the illustrator chose to include some definitions of words that may be unfamiliar for younger readers as well as to indicate where in the world most of the cited locales can be found, especially since I did not recognize many of the places.
I learned a bit more about Mr. Lear from reading the last pages of the book. For example, I did not know that he was "the twentieth child in a family of twenty-one" and that his eldest sister raised and educated him.
Also, I realized that Mr. Lear was an accomplished artist as well as a poet. I really enjoyed reading this book.
January 3, 2018
Thinking that kids need more nonsense and already having pulled The Quangle-Wangle's Hat for storytime, I also pulled this book to maybe add more nonsense to the mix. All the poems herein are so-called limericks, at least in form. The fifth line, though, tends to merely reword the first. They are all, "There was a [insert some type of person] from [insert locale]" and end with "That [insert adjective and type of person] of [insert locale]."
The pictures are interesting - being a combination of drawings and found objects, giving it a touch of three-dimensionality. The best part, I thought, was the map at the end where the reader could find most of the locations mentioned in the poems.
I quibble with Lear over the pronunciation of "Rheims" which he rhymes with dreams while it actually rhymes more with how we pronounce its country, France. It's never too soon to teach kids the correct way to say something.
The pictures are interesting - being a combination of drawings and found objects, giving it a touch of three-dimensionality. The best part, I thought, was the map at the end where the reader could find most of the locations mentioned in the poems.
I quibble with Lear over the pronunciation of "Rheims" which he rhymes with dreams while it actually rhymes more with how we pronounce its country, France. It's never too soon to teach kids the correct way to say something.
November 27, 2021
Ug! Literally anyone could have written these poems. I understand they’re supposed to be nonsense, but it seems like a waste of time to even have created them. Also, it always bothers me when the illustrations don’t match the words. The words were nearly all old people, but the pictures didn’t match. Even my 5-year-old noticed.
August 26, 2017
3.3145.**)*(88)
March 23, 2017
Not a fan of the poems by Edward Lear, however the pictures by Valorie Fisher are engaging.
July 30, 2013
Picture Book Pairing
Pairing and Overview: I paired Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with Nonsense because both use figurative language and vocabulary that can be considered nonsensical and difficult to understand. Language that is considered nonsense is often difficult to define, even with context clues. Lewis Carroll’s writing tends to take on a sense of poetry and can easily be paired with Edward Lear’s silly limericks.
Book citation: Lear, Edward, and Valorie Fisher. Nonsense! New York: Atheneum for Young Readers, 2004. Print.
Audience: I would recommend this book to middle and high school students interested in poetic elements of writing and nonsense language. English teachers could use this to cover figurative language and to approach the idea of connotation/denotation in vocabulary.
Selection Criteria:
Accuracy: Though the literature in Nonsense! was written in the 1800’s, the artist Valorie Fisher has updated the text with colorful, thought-provoking artwork. Limericks are often nonsensical and not necessarily fact, but approach ideas in a different way.
Authority: Edward Lear has been published even more since his death as his literature is widely read. The illustrator has been exhibited in multiple museums and positively reviewed for her work with other picturebooks.
Relevance: Poetic forms are studied in English class and context clues can be used to identify new vocabulary.
Appropriateness: Since this is a picturebook, the information presented is easily readable by middle and high school students. Unknown vocabulary is defined with or referenced within the illustrations. Students can emotionally handle the humorous and nonsensical approach to poetic forms.
Scope: The poetic form of limericks is presented over and over with different characters and settings. The illustrations are interesting and creative in depicting the different scenes described in each poem.
Literary Merit: The quality of the illustrations is colorful and eye-catching, allowing the poems to take life within the characters and settings depicted. The poems each get a two-page spread that makes the information easy to navigate.
Value: This would help update the poetry section with a specific limerick text that uses photographic illustrations to depict the text. English teachers could identify different words within the text to help discuss positive and negative connotations along with the scenes.
Review source: Lauralyn Persson, et al. "Nonsense! (Book)." School Library Journal 50.11 (2004): 127-128. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 July 2013.
SOL connection: English: Reading 9.3 – The student will apply knowledge of word origins, derivations, and figurative language to extend vocabulary development in authentic texts.
a) Use context, structure, and connotations to determine meanings of words and phrases.
b) Discriminate between connotative and denotative meanings and interpret the connotation.
e) Identify literary and classical allusions and figurative language in text.
Ordering information: Unpaged. Map. S&S/Atheneum/AnAnne Schwartz Bk. Nov. 2004. RTE $16.95. ISBN 0-689-86380-2. LC 2003010681.
Pairing and Overview: I paired Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with Nonsense because both use figurative language and vocabulary that can be considered nonsensical and difficult to understand. Language that is considered nonsense is often difficult to define, even with context clues. Lewis Carroll’s writing tends to take on a sense of poetry and can easily be paired with Edward Lear’s silly limericks.
Book citation: Lear, Edward, and Valorie Fisher. Nonsense! New York: Atheneum for Young Readers, 2004. Print.
Audience: I would recommend this book to middle and high school students interested in poetic elements of writing and nonsense language. English teachers could use this to cover figurative language and to approach the idea of connotation/denotation in vocabulary.
Selection Criteria:
Accuracy: Though the literature in Nonsense! was written in the 1800’s, the artist Valorie Fisher has updated the text with colorful, thought-provoking artwork. Limericks are often nonsensical and not necessarily fact, but approach ideas in a different way.
Authority: Edward Lear has been published even more since his death as his literature is widely read. The illustrator has been exhibited in multiple museums and positively reviewed for her work with other picturebooks.
Relevance: Poetic forms are studied in English class and context clues can be used to identify new vocabulary.
Appropriateness: Since this is a picturebook, the information presented is easily readable by middle and high school students. Unknown vocabulary is defined with or referenced within the illustrations. Students can emotionally handle the humorous and nonsensical approach to poetic forms.
Scope: The poetic form of limericks is presented over and over with different characters and settings. The illustrations are interesting and creative in depicting the different scenes described in each poem.
Literary Merit: The quality of the illustrations is colorful and eye-catching, allowing the poems to take life within the characters and settings depicted. The poems each get a two-page spread that makes the information easy to navigate.
Value: This would help update the poetry section with a specific limerick text that uses photographic illustrations to depict the text. English teachers could identify different words within the text to help discuss positive and negative connotations along with the scenes.
Review source: Lauralyn Persson, et al. "Nonsense! (Book)." School Library Journal 50.11 (2004): 127-128. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 July 2013.
SOL connection: English: Reading 9.3 – The student will apply knowledge of word origins, derivations, and figurative language to extend vocabulary development in authentic texts.
a) Use context, structure, and connotations to determine meanings of words and phrases.
b) Discriminate between connotative and denotative meanings and interpret the connotation.
e) Identify literary and classical allusions and figurative language in text.
Ordering information: Unpaged. Map. S&S/Atheneum/AnAnne Schwartz Bk. Nov. 2004. RTE $16.95. ISBN 0-689-86380-2. LC 2003010681.
Read
April 29, 2009Genre: Picture Book
Age Level: transitional/fluent. This book is mostly for independent reading, because it would provoke too much discussion on questioning what is going on the the book fro an entire class. the independent reader must understand the apostrophe, and understand names and proper titles of people.
World View: Eurocentric, but not limited to class.
Theme: poetic madness: nonsense that is used to teach poetry.
Literary Elements: capitalization, apostrophe, rhyme scheme, and dialogue.
In the Classroom: the students could read newspaper articles, cereal boxes, or magazines, etc, and make a poem from what they read. the point of this exercise is that poetry, and literature itself, can be found everywhere in life and be about anything.
Illustrations: zany and fitting to the text that jumps off of the page. The illustrations show good facial expressions of the characters in the text, just as the readers would expect to see i their own minds.
Age Level: transitional/fluent. This book is mostly for independent reading, because it would provoke too much discussion on questioning what is going on the the book fro an entire class. the independent reader must understand the apostrophe, and understand names and proper titles of people.
World View: Eurocentric, but not limited to class.
Theme: poetic madness: nonsense that is used to teach poetry.
Literary Elements: capitalization, apostrophe, rhyme scheme, and dialogue.
In the Classroom: the students could read newspaper articles, cereal boxes, or magazines, etc, and make a poem from what they read. the point of this exercise is that poetry, and literature itself, can be found everywhere in life and be about anything.
Illustrations: zany and fitting to the text that jumps off of the page. The illustrations show good facial expressions of the characters in the text, just as the readers would expect to see i their own minds.
March 10, 2012
A collection of some of Lear's limericks, with oddly collaged illustrations in vibrant colors. Special feature: when poems contain sophisticated vocabulary it is defined on the illustration page with more familiar synonyms or phrases.
November 30, 2013
"Nonsense", is a picture book with really short stories about different people and what they did. This book has several different punctuation marks from apostrophe’s to colons. “Nonsense” would be great for teaching students how to use different punctuation marks for their writings.
April 8, 2014
enjoyed this short poetry over a coffee. Good intro for kids to poetry and makes a dreary subject fun for kids. The light hearted non stop nonsense does get tiring in the end and thats just when the book ends. I recommend this for entertainment and humour.
November 5, 2014
Loved the illustrations to Lear's nonsense limericks. They brought to life my hazy mental images. (Hazy because I didn't pay too much attention to the nonsense rhymes.) I particularly like the vocabulary definitions that adorn every page.
November 26, 2008
I didn't really like this book. It didn't make any sense.
November 20, 2008
Fun, silly book. The kids got a kick out of these classic poems.
November 20, 2008
Cute funny book.
March 25, 2011
Delightful, I really like the the illustrations include definitions to the trickier words.
October 14, 2011
I did not care for this poetry book. The illustration were differnt than I am used to, and I did not like them. I prefer other poetry books.
July 31, 2012
Silly poems thate had my little guy in stitches...
November 24, 2014
This is just the sort of nonsense I like. My favorites being the one where the man gets stuck in a kettle for life and the one where another man gets baked in a cake.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews