Roaches roaming in your cereal bowl? Yum! How about spiders spinning webs around you while you sleep? Or lice building houses in your hair? Sound like fun? It is with these bugs! Bug lovers everywhere will delight in this wonderfully creepy-crawly collection of poetry. Douglas McKelvey's fun, catchy rhymes paired with Caldecott-medalist Richard Egielski's humorous paintings make Locust Pocus an insect extravaganza for any entomology enthusiast. Parents may want to wash their hands after reading this book, but their kids will love it!
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
McKelvey (The Angel Knew Papa and the Dog) waxes eloquent on things that crawl, flutter and buzz in this compendium, fittingly illustrated by Egielski (Jazper; The Web Files). One concise sentence, densely packed with double entendres, alliteration and metaphors, summarizes each bug. The results are lyrical but not too pretty, and the close-up pictures gleefully accentuate the gross. Some images present unsuspecting victims, as in the boy who takes a heaping spoonful of roach-infested cereal ("Roaches roam/ among the dishes,/ inconspicuous/ [be suspicious!]"), and the sleeping girl who accommodates a bloodsucker ("Mosquitoes dine on/ old and young / vampire bugs/ with straws for tongues!"). Other watercolor paintings show unsmiling, zombiefied children looking dumbstruck with horror. One dismayed boy wears woolens ventilated by holes ("Musty moths munch/ winter clothing,/ not disarming,/ but disrobing"), and a startled farm kid spies the title critter among green, gnawed stumps ("Locust pocus/ on the crocus,/ strip the crops/ and do provoke us"). Egielski's malicious, carnival-colorful illustrations put the sting in McKelvey's skillful serenades. Ages 3-7.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 4-A lively selection of original poems about insects from crickets and spiders to mayflies and water bugs. The selections are short and snappy, zany and memorable. Egielski has hit his stride here, using watercolors to create wonderful illustrations that perfectly mirror the mood set by McKelvey's verse: a roach hangs off the spoonful of cereal a young boy is poised to swallow; lice build "impromptu houses" on the top of a boy's head; a girl falls backward as the chair she is sitting in is devoured by termites. The large pictures, several of them double-page spreads, are quite creepy. Readers are certain to go buggy over Locust Pocus!-Meghan R. Malone, Turner Free Library, Randolph, MA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Attention Bug Lovers,
By A Customer
This review is from: Locust Pocus: Poems to Bug You (Hardcover)
Attention Bug-Lovers! Here is a great poetry book for you. McKelvey has written 26 short buggy poems full of alliteration, puns and rythmn. The poems are potrayed with creative typsetting to accentuate the meaning. The illustrations by Egielski are the perfect embodiement of the creepy crawly critters. The bugs are big and bright and have such character. Both my four year old and my 11 year old loved this book. Having lived in Florida, I especially appreciated the poem about the roachs that "Roam through the dishes." Great fun for everyone.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent,
By A Customer
This review is from: Locust Pocus: Poems to Bug You (Hardcover)
My 5 and 8 year olds loved it and so did I. The wonderful little poems and the appropriate gross pictures were the perfect mix. A great book for kids and dads!
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Watch Out,
By A Customer
This review is from: Locust Pocus: Poems to Bug You (Hardcover)
This book may have great poetry, but the imagry was enough to scare my toddler. Although beautifully illustrated, the images are a bit much - especially the one of the spider webs & spiders covering the boy's bed while he is sleeping. This is definitely a book for older kids, unless you want a book that will give your toddler nightmares!
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Crafty crickets perch on pickets, chirp on porches, hide in thickets. Read the first page New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Crafty crickets perch on pickets, chirp on porches, hide in thickets. Read the first page New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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