Tasty Twist of the Tongue: I Know a Librarian Who Chewed on A Word by Laurie Lazzaro Knowlton

I KNOW A LIBRARIAN WHO CHEWED ON A WORD.

SHE PRACTICALLY PURRED WHEN SHE ATE THAT WORD.

HOW ABSURD!

Well, of course. The kids' section is all agog at this event, and as Miss Devine then chomps her way through that book about Captain Hook, the children look around and gather in disbelief.

With Peter Pan and company under her belt, this amazing omnivorous reader in a bun looks around for more fodder and her eyes fall upon a chair, a reading table, a bookcart... and that's not all.

I KNOW A LIBRARIAN WHO SAVORED A SHELF.

WHO WOULD'VE THOUGHT SHE COULD EAT IT HERSELF!

It had to happen. After all those "I Know an Old Lady..." stories, someone finally got around to a librarian as the subject of an ingestion (or indigestion) saga. Laurie Knowlton's I Know a Librarian Who Chewed on a Word (Pelican Publishing, 2012) takes on the task of tailoring this cumulative tale premise to a library setting, and the result is... well, intriguing and yet a bit "upsetting."

Granted, author Lucille Colandro, who fairly has a franchise on this format, has come up with many a seasonal treat (see her autumnal tale, There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves!), using the rhythm and rhyme scheme of the folk song "I know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly." Many noteworthy takeoffs abound, some more tasty than others, but Knowlton's stereotypical librarian's choice of chewables is a bit, so to speak, hard to swallow and harder still to stomach. Unlike Colandro's old lady, who swallows some snow and eventually produces a fully adorned snowman, what this librarian er, "comes up with" is the word "READ," a worthy word, no doubt, but one unlikely to follow all that ingesting of library paraphernalia. Those hungry for a real attention-getter of a library or book week readaloud may find this book a zesty addition to the fare, but for most, this one is strictly a matter of personal taste.