Awful Ogre Running Wild
The huge but rather childlike character featured in Prelutsky and Zelinsky’s Awful Ogre’s Awful Day (2001) returns in a new volume of light verse accomplanied by full-page and double-page illustrations. Taking place during the one-eyed ogre’s summer vacation, the first-person poems run the gamut from somewhat gross (“Awful Ogre Has Insomnia”) to droll (“Awful Ogre Attends a Concert”) to tenderhearted (“Awful Ogre Pays a Visit”) to sublime (“Awful Ogre Goes Dragon-Watching”). Prelutsky shows his sure sense of rhythm and rhyme as well as his child-pleasing sense of humor in this series of 17 clearly written poems. Most appear on double-page spreads, accompanied by large ink-and-watercolor illustrations that reflect the tone of the verse. Highlighting the barely controlled chaos of this amiable ogre’s world, the pictures create a visually imaginative setting where anything can happen and, in the fun-to-discover details, something often does. A crowd-pleasing encore. Grades K-3. --Carolyn Phelan