There+Was+an+Old+Lady+Who+Swallowed+a+Fly

**There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly** **written & illustrated by Simms Taback**   **Book Review by Jessica Glazier**

**Bibliographical Data:** //There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly// - Simms Taback Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorportated Hardcover: $10.36 (Barnes and Noble) ISBN-13: 9780670869398 Pages: 32 Age Range: 3-7 Years Language: English

**Summary:** //There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly// is a fictional story, based off of the traditional song, about an old lady who swallows a series of things such as a fly, a spider, a bird...etc. The story shows all of the things that she consumes and repeats them as the reader continues through out the story. It also shows what is occurring in her stomach after eating all of the creatures.

**Book Review:** This used to be one of my favorite books simply because of the song/poem that I learned early on in elementary school. I also remember loving the illustrations through out the book because it enabled me to put the song to images. This is a fun and entertaining book for children to read for enjoyment, learning about poems, and also about remembering the content of stories. It repeats all of the creatures consumed by the old lady so as a teacher it could be beneficial to have the students repeat all of the items back as one reads the story! I also think this could be a good story to teach about predicting because the students could all predict what will happen each time that the Old Lady eats something else and then compare their predictions with what happens in the end of the story!

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">**Author Biography:** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Simms Taback was a husband, father, grandfather, art director, graphic designer, illustrator and writer grew up in the Bronx, NY and graduated from Cooper Union. He taught at the School of Visual Arts and Syracuse University. He has received the Caldecott Honor Award Medal and also the New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book award for //There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.// Simms Taback passed away at the age of 79 on December 25, 2011.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">**Literary Element Analysis:** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">In //There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly,// Simms Taback used illustrations to show what is happening through out the entire story. He uses detailed and entertaining pictures to show an old lady eating crazy things and becoming larger and larger each time. For instance, in the beginning when the Old Lady swallowed a fly, it showed the fly inside her stomach, but there were no other out of the ordinary things occurring. Later, once she ate a dog, it showed all of the previous creatures she swallowed and also showed her becoming larger and larger. Simms Taback uses humorous pictures to give the traditional song/poem a great image for all to see! I believe that this book could be beneficial to all readers. It is a entertaining comedy that enables the readers to picture what would happen if this fictional story came to life!


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