Book Reviews by Carol Neeland for LS 5603: Literature for Children and Young Adults

And the Green Grass Grew All Around by Alvin Schwartz

Illustrated by Sue Truesdell

Plot Summary:

And the Green Grass Grew All Around is a collection of folk poetry. The poems would probably be recognizable by children and adults as common ditties heard on playgrounds. The poems are categorized: People, Food, School, Tease and Taunts, Wishes and Warnings, and so on. Some of the poems are meant to be sung and have the music below the poem. At the end of the book there is an informational section, mainly written for adults and older students. It has information on folk poets and poetry, sources of where the poems come from and an index of first lines.

Critical Analysis: 

At first glance, this seems like an amazing collection of folk poetry that children would love. It has many of their classics gleaned from playgrounds such as, “Eeny meeny, miney, mo,” and “Miss Lucy had a baby.” I read the entire book out loud with my 8 year old daughter to see how she would respond. This was the only children’s book we had with us on vacation so it got a lot of air time. Interestingly, when we read a poem that we recognized well enough to sing it or were able to read it with rhythm, she enjoyed it. By the fourth day, she was requesting that I not read this book anymore. The only other choices we had were a book about constellations and a book about tropical fish. She preferred both of those to this book and those weren’t even written for children! 

On a positive note, the illustrations fit well with the text. In some cases, the text is the main part of the page and the illustrations are in the margins. They often portray a great deal of action; having pictures of people running or flying kites in the margins adds to the feeling of movement. 

We found some of the poems disturbing. One example of a poem that concerned both of us was “The Titanic.” We take a ferry to Hong Kong airport whenever we travel out of China so we spend a lot of time in boats. Kelsey was asking me why the ship went down, what happened to the people, was it scary, could it happen again? Tunnell and Jacobs quote C.S. Lewis as saying that “insulating a child completely from fear was a disservice. Since it is so likely they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not bright but darker” (Tunnell and Jacobs, p. 110). With respect to fairy tales and folktales which are clearly not based on reality, I do agree that children should learn about conquering fear. However, the story of The Titanic is real and even though it is in poem format in a book with a lot of funny little songs, it’s still scary: 

“It was sad when the great ship went down…
Husbands and wives,
Little children lost their lives…” (p. 63) 

If “The Titanic” were the only poem that was questionable in the book, I might be willing to overlook it. However, on the opposite page is a poem called, “Reach for the Sky” which says, 

“He dropped his shotgun, whipped out his Colts
And blasted at Louie with twin thunderbolts… 

When the smoke cleared away,
Louie was found
In a puddle of red – dead on the ground.” (p.62) 

This is a book for children? Does anyone wonder why young people are desensitized to violence and shoot their classmates at schools and universities?  

Here’s another example: 

“This land is my land,
This land’s not your land.
I’ve got a shotgun –
And you don’t have one;
If you don’t get off,
I’ll blast your head off,
This land was made for only me.” (p. 160) 

As a teacher or a librarian if I put this book into the hands of students, they and their parents would assume that I thought it has merit. It’s one thing if children hear taunts like this from the bullies on the playground: 

“You call me names?
My strength you doubt?
Pardon me
While I knock you out.” (p. 40) 

Or 

“See my pinky?
See my thumb?
See my fist?
You’d better run.” (p. 40) 

But it’s quite another thing for us to provide the bullies with hurtful things to say. Why further promote violence when it’s all around us? If I caught a couple of third graders saying these rhymes to each other on the playground, they’d both be visiting the principal. Imagine, what would happen when the principal found out that they learned these taunts from a book I gave them? 

I wouldn’t recommend that this book be banned from the library, but I certainly wouldn’t feel right recommending it to children. 

Review Excerpt: 

“A marvelous book that is sure to become a classic if children have any say in the matter. Schwartz has gathered sassy, funny, scary, and slightly naughty children’s folk poetry heard on schoolgrounds and wherever else kids are having fun. Adults who stew over the appropriateness of Roald Dahl’s books or Shel Silverstein’s poetry may have concerns here, but kids will love having all their underground playground rhymes in one volume. Scores are included for “On Top of Spaghetti,” “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory/ Of the Closing of the School,” and other songs. It’s hard to imagine illustrations better suited to the book’s silly, energized tone than Truesdell’s big-eyed, animated, and humorous characters. Given plenty of white space, they tumble, goof, and guffaw across the pages, in ideal tandem with the poetry. These drawings may be in black and white, but readers will never pick up a more colorful book. Of additional interest to many people, adults in particular, are the “Notes” in the back on folk poets and poetry; “Sources” that trace the selections’ origins are also helpful. Read this outrageous volume before it is shelved; once the kids discover it, it will always be checked out.”–Lee Bock, Brown County Public Library Green Bay, WI 

As you can probably guess, I disagree with this review. I’m not typically inclined toward censorship, but I would have to side with the adults who would have concerns about this book. Unlike Roald Dahl’s books which are clearly fantasy, this book has historical and realistic elements in poetic format that are frightening and violent. Shel Silverstein typically pokes fun at institutions or at fictional characters; he doesn’t write rhymes that kids can use to bully each other.

I do agree with Lee Bock that the most useful part of the book is the information for adults at the end of it. Reading about where some of the rhymes originated was interesting. 

Connections: 

I wouldn’t teach this book in its entirety to a class but it might be good to use as a resource for our upcoming “I love to read” week. One of our activities will be to “keep a poem in your pocket.” When designated students and faculty members say a secret password, a student can collect a prize by reciting a poem that is in his/her pocket. Some of the less violent poems from this book would be good to have in the students’ pockets that week because they are so short. I would suggest that each pocket poem would need to be approved by the classroom teacher before going into the pocket.

Another activity I might use this book for is to find poems with traceable historic origins like “Pease porridge hot” and have the students trace the origin using the Internet, this book, and other books from our library. 

Bibliographic Data:

Bock, Lee. “And the Green Grass Grew All Around” School Library Journal (1992), http://reviews.schoollibraryjournal.com/bd.aspx?isbn=0060227575&pub=sl (accessed February 17, 2008).

Schwartz, Alvin, and Sue Truesdell. And the Green Grass Grew All Around. New York: Harper Collins, 1992. ISBN Number: 0-06-022757-5

Tunnell, Michael, and James S. Jacobs. Children’s Literature, Briefly. 3 ed. Columbus: Pearson Education, 2004.

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