A Little Less Noise

This witty, silly, humorous collection of some of Barry Louis Polisar's best-loved song lyrics, accompanied by imaginative full-color drawings, brings to life the often comical reality of childhood. Filled with pesky siblings, terrifying teachers, and tormented babysitters who won't return, not to mention various monsters, a boy who has lost his pants, and a young child with a dog named “Cat,” the illustrated poetry will delight youngsters of all ages as well as their parents.

Publishers Weekly

This collection of Polisar's (Peculiar Zoo) most popular lyrics pulled from an out-of-print songbook (Noises from Under the Rug) loses something in translation when presented without tunes. Though many of the selections ("I Lost My Pants"; "My Brother Threw Up on My Stuffed Toy Bunny") possess the kind of loopy irreverence practiced by such fellow poetic punsters as Jack Prelutsky, others employ clumsy internal rhymes ("Underwear is everywhere but mostly underneath./ Usually you can't see what goes on beneath"; "Factories are good for snacks,/ I love that red hot steel./ And you know we need our supply/ Of iron in our meals," sings a three-toed, triple-eyed, double-jointed dinosaur), which may be helped by musical accompaniment but fall flat when read aloud. Thematically, silliness reigns supreme ("We stand up on the sofa with carrots up our noses,/ Pretending we are monsters not wearing any clothes-es"), a fact that should delight Polisar's fans, and several of the tag lines pack a punch, perhaps most notably that of his well-known "I Don't Wanna Go to School": " `Now Tom get up,' said Tommy's mom. She hoped he was convincible./ `You've got to go to school,' she said, `because you are the Principal.' " Longtime collaborator Clark dishes up his trademark blend of quirky, bug-eyed cartoonlike creatures, whose exaggerated expressions heighten the humor. Ages 4-8. (Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Barry Louis Polisar has written songs for Sesame Street and The Weekly Reader, and his early recordings are cataloged in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He has performed at the White House, the Smithsonian, and the Kennedy Center. He is the author of Insect Soup: Bug Poems, Peculiar Zoo, and The Snake Who Was Afraid of People. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. David Clark is a winner of the Rubin Award for Newspaper Illustration and has illustrated almost all of Barry’s books. He lives in Luray, Virginia.