The Swamps of Sleethe: Poems From Beyond the Solar System

Jack Prelutsky was named our nation’s first Children’s Poet Laureate in 2006. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

Jimmy Pickering’s deliciously scary illustrations have appeared in several picture books, and his art has enhanced the covers of all of Debi Gliori’s Pure Dead series. He lives in Astoria, Oregon.
From the Hardcover edition.

The nation's first children's poet laureate fills a galaxy with weird, scary planets: his 19 poems describe places and creatures you wouldn't want to visit. On planet Lonithor, for example, demon birds... eviscerate their prey./ And when they've disemboweled you,/ They'll pick apart your face; on Ogdofod the monopods will snare you in their nets,/ Then process you and package you/ To feed their hungry pets. Pickering's (Skelly the Skeleton Girl) amusing illustrations suggest images for a Tim Burton movie. A tourist on Drifig Prime resembles a frozen Corpse Bride and someone who stumbles on Planet Grob looks a lot like Edward Scissorhands. Less broad in its appeal than most of Prelutsky's previous titles, this over-the-top intergalactic odyssey will mostly please kids capable of relishing horror and its send-ups (You laugh till you wish / You'd expire of laughter, / And in that same second, / you mercifully do). For added fun, about half of the planet names are anagrams; a key is listed at the end. Ages 8–up.
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