There Was an Old Monkey Who Swallowed a Frog

Publishers Weekly

Migrating to a rainforest setting, the creators of There Was a Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea present another wacky take on this tune. After swallowing his first victim (“I don't know why he swallowed the frog. What a hog!”), the googly-eyed monkey downs three animated cocoa beans “to sweeten the frog,” followed by a sequence of outlandish items and animals. Gray's digitally rendered illustrations alternately reveal the feasting monkey and the (remarkably) cheerful captives inside his stomach. Text and art deliver equal measures of over-the-top zaniness. Ages 4-9. (Mar.)

Booklist

The popular cumulative nonsense rhyme, "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly," is the inspiration for this fun parody. The digital artwork adds to the wild uproar with kinetic scenes of pop-eyed monsters that bump and squash each other and squawk through the jungle before an old monkey swallows them whole and mixes them together. The grotesque images, with the creatures and foods crowding into the monkey's ever-expanding belly, sometimes feel too packed, but the rhyming words, which stay true to the original song's rhythm, are fun for reading aloud: "I don't know why he swallowed the frog. / What a hog!" Young children will join in with slurping and burping noises of their own as they relish the repeated silly sounds and gross-out animal action.

Children's Literature - Mary Hynes-Berry

"The Little Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly" is a classic nonsense song that has invited all kinds of imitations. Lucille Colandro has the old lady toss down succeeding sea creatures, while Teri Sloat uses creatures from the Pacific Coast. Ward seems to have a similar kind of adaptation in mind as she has a monkey consume a host of living things from the rain forest. Steve Gray's illustrations have an exaggerated comic feel to assure that no one takes things too seriously. However, a little more rigor might have done a better job of honoring the rain forest motif. The things that the monkey swallows do not follow the order of increasing size in the original song. In fact cocoa and mangos get mixed with tapir, sloths, and frogs of indeterminate species. While it would make sense to have the mango swallowed for the sake of the fruit bat, who feast on it, that does not happen either. Reviewer: Mary Hynes-Berry

Kirkus Reviews

Old monkey swallows bits and pieces of the rainforest to a cumulative refrain, a rhythm and melody straight from that little old lady: "He swallowed the toucan to squawk at the bat. / He swallowed the bat right after the cocoa. / He swallowed the cocoa to sweeten the frog. / I don't know why he swallowed the frog. / What a hog!" Gray's shiny digital illustrations show the eater so fat in the end that the only movement possible is his stomach's "rumble rumble rumble... / Yours would too... // if you swallowed a jungle!" There is no regurgitation here, just an inside view of the googly-eyed cocoa, mango, vine, toucan, iguana, leopard, sloth, tapir, crocodile, etc., all alert and smiling crazily. Ward uses a few too many creatures to maintain the attention of the toddler-and-preschool group, which would be the standard audience for the rhyme, but older children familiar with the original can wink at the slick, goofy art and enjoy the over-the-top comic scenario, perhaps as part of a rainforest unit. (Picture book. 5-8)

Booklist Review

The popular cumulative nonsense rhyme, "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" is the inspiration for this fun parody. The digital artwork adds to the wild uproar with kinetic scenes of pop-eyed monsters that bump and squash each other and squawk through the jungle before an old monkey swallows them whole and mixes them together. The grotesque images, with the creatures and foods crowding into the monkey's ever-expanding belly, sometimes feel too packed, but the rhyming words, which stay...