Karen Leggett (Children's Literature)
What a marvelous bit of whimsy and new life Shel Silverstein is giving us--five years after his own death. An endpaper note says the book has been in the works for twenty years and Silverstein’s family acknowledges everyone’s help in bringing it to life. Runny Babbit brings with him Toe Jurtle, Skertie Gunk, Wormy Squirm, Bumping Jean and Goctor Doose and many other frends--all delightfully and simply drawn in silly situations made sillier by Silverstein’s alphabet tricks: “Runny got a present/A lovely hurple pat./ He put in on and pasked his als,/What do you think of that?”/One said, “Ooh, it’s storrible!”/ One said, “Yuck--it hinks!”/Now Runny Babbit never asks/What other theople pink.” One can just imagine how the impetus began for such poems might have begun with one person’s slip of the tongue around the dinner table. The youngest children will be challenged to figure out just what the trick is and older ones will want to imitate it in their own speech, much as youngsters try to speak Pidgin English or other “coded” language. Pick any poem as a perfect way to begin discussions about life, language, poetry,-- or just to start or end the day with a laugh. And I dare anyone to read this book silently. It can’t be done. 2005, HarperCollins, $18.89. Ages 4 up.

Sheree Van Vreede (Children's Literature)
For Shel fans, this brand new collection of his world-famous silly poems has been long overdue. Completed before his death in 1999, this “billy sook” (aka “silly book”) is full of spoonerisms or transpositions of parts of two or more words, such as “runny babbit” instead of “bunny rabbit.” Every poem in this collection uses these tongue-twisting, mouth-sputtering spoonerisms to create silly thoughts and phrases and to force the reader to figure out what the proper words really are. It is a worthwhile exercise and is sure to entertain children as well as parents. For instance, in “Runny’s Jig Bump,” can you untranspose the words from this popular rhyme? “Runny be quimble,/Runny be nick,/Runny cump over the jandlestick.” It took Shel over 20 years to create these wild and imaginative poems, and they are a fitting tribute to a classic children’s poet. 2005, HarperCollins, $17.99. Ages 6 up.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2005 (Vol. 73, No. 5))
Described as "a work in progress for over twenty years," this posthumous gathering of new verses and line drawings plays too long on a single trope, but makes a real knee-slapper in small doses. Most of the 42 entries star flop-eared Runny Babbit (with occasional appearances from Toe Jurtle, Ramma Mabbit, Ploppy Sig and similar fellow travelers) in various misadventures: A "Dungry Hog" teaches him to "trimb a clee" for instance, in the bath, "He chewed his dubber rucky up, / He gulped boap subbles too. / But what upset his Mamma most / Was shrinking the dampoo," and "Runny be quimble / Runny be nick, / Runny cump over the jandlestick. / But now-what smells like furning bluff? / Guess he didn't hump jigh enough." Like the humor, the simple line drawings accompanying each poem are vintage Silverstein-so, gip, don't sulp, and enjoy this unexpected lagniappe from one of the greats. 2005, HarperCollins, 96p, $17.99. Category: Poetry. Ages 7 to 11. Starred Review. © 2005 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Michelle Glatt (Library Media Connection, October 2005)
Posthumously published, this book was completed before Shel Silverstein's death in 1999. It is a work of poetry and wordplay, chronicling the adventures of Runny Babbit and friends. The characters, including the narrator, speak "Runny Babbit talk," a topsy-turvy language chock-full of spoonerisms, the transposition of initial sounds/syllables at the beginning of two or more words. These irresistible poems beg to be read aloud, and readers will find doing so as challenging as it is giddy. Silverstein's signature illustrations are sure to add to the hilarity. Teachers can use the poems as a writing prompt, especially "Runny's Rittle Leminders," a page full of notes from Runny's mother pinned to his wall, such as "Fleep your Swoor," "Gop Stiggling," and "Tick up your Poys." This book earns its spot next to Silverstein's classics, as readers of all ages will find enjoyment here and discover something new with each read. Highly Recommended. 2005, Harper Collins, 96pp., $17.99 hc. Ages 5 to 18.

Deborah Stevenson (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, May 2005 (Vol. 58, No. 9))
This posthumous work from the eminent poet offers over forty poems that spin feats of phonemic inversion to make the Reverend Spooner een with grenvy. The hero of the series is a hapless lagomorph known as Runny Babbit, familiarly known as Runny, who has a series of versical adventures involving friends, family, food, and messes. The initial reversal sounds like a simple gimmick, but Silverstein makes it into a delicious sustained game. The poems (all in bouncily metered rhyme in traditional poetic structures such as ballad meter) are generally conceptually clever and satisfying in their own right, with punchlines amusing even when read with the letters in their proper place. The inversions are sometimes a bit of a visual challenge as well, since the original spelling is retained even when it occasionally miscues pronunciation, but that's part of the fun; an even bigger piece of the fun is the gloriously strange, oddly meaningful constructions that result (after Runny sits on wet paint, "his gur is full of foo"), turning even familiar stories (Cinderella) and rhymes (Yankee Doodle, Jack Be Nimble) into something gleefully silly. It's almost impossible not to read these entries aloud, and they've got a particular advantage there: they're not only great auditory audience-pleasers, they've got the same built-in expectation of entertaining failure as tongue-twisters, which reduces the pressure for accurate reading. Illustrations, in Silverstein's familiar meandering yet determined black lines, often contain additional textual games, and Runny himself is an expressive-eared yet hapless rabbit, the schlemiel of the animal world. Whether read aloud by audacious adults or by one giggling kid to another, Runny Babbit will be a leck of a hot of fun. A title index is included. Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2005, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2005, HarperCollins, 89p, $18.89 and $17.99. Grades 3-6.