I Know an Old Laddie

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

“I know an old laddie who swallowed a giraffe. / It’s a
bite-and-a-half when you swallow a giraffe / And you can’t stop to
laugh. / He swallowed the giraffe to catch the moose. / His dentures
flew loose when he swallowed that moose. / He swallowed the moose to
catch the bear. / Teeth, eyeballs and hair, he bolted that bear. / He
bolted the bear to catch the leopard. / He salted and peppered and
swallowed a leopard. / He swallowed the leopard to catch the wapiti. /
Hippity-hoppity, down went a wapiti. / ....” And if you want to know
what the wapiti was supposed to catch, you need to get this
tongue-in-cheek book.

The theme is borrowed from the old nursery rhyme “There Was an old
Lady Who Swallowed a Fly,” but Jean Little does a lot more than change
the gender of the main character. She ransacks the menagerie to cram all
creatures great and small down the old laddie’s throat and washes each
critter down with an outrageous pun or absurd observation. The momentum
builds as the old laddie goes from tiny bugs to bulky beasts. Equally
wonky are the illustrations by Rose Cowles, whose rendering of the old
laddie’s bizarre facial perspectives seem inspired by a playful
Picasso. If your child is in the mood for an honest blast of joyful
silliness, this book will deliver it with both barrels. Highly
recommended.