There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

Starred review from September 1, 1997
In Taback's (Joseph Had a Little Overcoat) ingenious take on the cumulative tale, there's a die-cut hole where the old lady's stomach should be, so the audience can see where everything she swallows ends up. What's more, the hole grows bigger to accommodate the increasing gastro-population--by the tale's end, it's the size and shape of the horse that causes her demise. The digested wide-eyed animals float in a confetti-dusted space (which matches her dress), while everything about the elderly woman's exterior is equally askew, including the pupils in her eyes. Older children should get a kick out of the amusing asides liberally tucked into every spread. For example, there are bogus front page headlines ("LADY WOLFS DOWN DOG" screams one); a recipe for "Spider's Soup"; editorial comments by the menagerie and Taback himself ("Even the artist is crying," says a small caricature of Taback when she meets her gluttonous end); as well as factual information (various types of flies, birds or dogs are clearly labeled and paired with accurate pictures). The gleefully dizzy mood is intensified by Taback's use of black hand-lettered words set in blocks of bright colors laid atop orange or black backgrounds, and occasionally sprinkled with collage images (whose sources range from old field guides to the Wall Street Journal). Children of all ages will joyfully swallow this book whole. All ages.

One cannot help but start to hum when one sees this familiar title. The American folk poem begs to be visualized as well. Simms Taback's magnificent bright-on-dark mixed-media and collage creation won the Caldecott Honor Award and captivates book lovers both young and old. Tom Chapin culminates this recording with an authentic, jaunty rendition of the favorite tune, but not before he has read the song as story. In doing this, he provides pauses to savor the details of Taback's work--the myriad of fly types, the newspaper headlines of creature disaster, and the increasing size of the old lady. The pleasure is the listener's, as well as Chapin's. A.R. 2003 Grammy Award Winner for Best Spoken Word Album for Children (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine