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: Runny Babbit.
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.
Runny Babbit is Shel Silverstein's hilarious and New York Times-bestselling book of spoonerisms—words or phrases with letters or syllables swapped: bunny rabbit becomes Runny Babbit.
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.
"I wish I had done this book!" --Maurice Sendak
"Potential yook of the bear." --Washington Post Book World
"In what may be the definitive book of letter-reversal wordplay, late author-illustrator Silverstein (Where the Sidewalk Ends) composes poems about cottontail Runny Babbit. He illustrates the verse in his signature devil-may-care ink line on bare white pages, and performs letter switcheroos to the point of reader exhaustion. An introductory poem explains the technique: "If you say, `Let's bead a rook/ That's billy as can se,'/ You're talking Runny Babbit talk/ Just like mim and he." The exchange of consonants results in a new language, producing Lewis Carroll nonsense or placing familiar words in skewed contexts; for instance, Runny's family includes "A sother and two bristers,/ A dummy and a mad," which says a lot about parents. Runny also has an untidy porcine friend, leading him to sing a serenade with an Edward Learish zest and a classic Silverstein twist at the end, "Oh Ploppy Sig, oh pessy mig,/ Oh dilthy firty swine,/ Whoever thought your room would be/ As mig a bess as mine?" Signs posted on Runny's wall remind him, "tick up your poys," "peed your fet" and "bon't delch"; a restaurant serves "dot hogs" and "boast reef." Silverstein also revises ditties such as "Dankee Yoodle" and runs roughshod over politeness ("Stand back! I'm Killy the Bid,/ And I'm fookin' for a light!"). Move over Hinky-Pink: this is sure to become the new classroom wordgame favorite. Silverstein's many fans will snap up this extended set of more than 40 puzzlepoems." --Publishers Weekly
"Described as "a work in progress for over twenty years," this posthumous gathering of new verses and line drawings plays too long on a single trope, but makes a real knee-slapper in small doses. Most of the 42 entries star flop-eared Runny Babbit (with occasional appearances from Toe Jurtle, Ramma Mabbit, Ploppy Sig and similar fellow travelers) in various misadventures: A "Dungry Hog" teaches him to "trimb a clee" for instance, in the bath, "He chewed his dubber rucky up, / He gulped boap subbles too. / But what upset his Mamma most / Was shrinking the dampoo," and "Runny be quimble / Runny be nick, / Runny cump over the jandlestick. / But now-what smells like furning bluff? / Guess he didn't hump jigh enough." Like the humor, the simple line drawings accompanying each poem are vintage Silverstein-so, gip, don't sulp, and enjoy this unexpected lagniappe from one of the greats." --Kirkus Reviews
About the AuthorShel Silverstein 's incomparable career as a bestselling children's book author and illustrator began with Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back. He is also the creator of picture books including A Giraffe and a Half, Who Wants a Cheap Rhinoceros?, The Missing Piece, The Missing Piece Meets the Big O, and the perennial favorite The Giving Tree, as well as classic poetry collections such as Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, Every Thing On It, Don't Bump the Glump!, and Runny Babbit.
