The Swamps of Sleethe (by Jack Prelutsky)

It's hard to determine who's the target for this grim little collection. Sure, it's kind of humorous at first, but eventually the relentless gloom becomes overwhelming. Nearly every single poem ends with someone dead or disfigured. Is there really any reason kids need to imagine a planet that leaves them "disemboweled" by birds who "pick apart your face"? Or one where children are processed into pet food? The collection is topped with a final poem sure to put the nail in the proverbial coffin. It gives kids an ugly, pessimistic, and depressing vision of their own home planet.

Sure, Prelutsky is talented -- he's the Poetry Foundation's Children's Poet Laureate for a reason -- but he must have put together this collection on a really lousy day. A little more humor and a little less negativity might have saved the book but as it is, it's not something you want kids to grab off the shelf for a little pre-bedtime reading.

The illustrations are appropriate to the content -- smart, sometimes funny, and always creepy. Maybe the best way to read this book is to dip in and out. Maybe a poem or two in the afternoon while the sun is shining and all is mostly right in the world. Kind of like avoiding a horror moving when no one is home and it's storming -- it's all about context.