Goop Tales: Alphabetically Told, by Gelett Burgess

Above is a page of Burgess' book, Goops and How to be Them, introducing the Goops.

Well, now that I have explained my infatuation with the stories of the Goops, I might as well blog about a Goop book. I never knew how many children's books Gelett Burgess had published. The one I read in my imaginary schoolhouse called Goops and How to be Them, was published in 1900. It is a collection of poems about misbehaving children. It is classified as a manual on manners and is supposed to teach kids manners using poems and small drawings about the horrible Goops as examples of BAD BEHAVIOR.

This "new" book (not really new, but new to me - published 1905) about the Goops, is even more similar to Ashman's M is for Mischief than the other book that initially sparked my curiosity in this whole thing. I wonder if Goop Tales was an inspiration for Ashman's humorous manners book??

Goop Tales is an alphabetical collection of poems about poor mannered children, the beginning letters of their names and behaviors correspond to a letter of the alphabet.

The book is so funny! I think that, even though the book is more than one hundred years old, the content and messages are still relevant and can be humorous as well! I'm definitely going to keep these on the shelf and continue my search for more of Burgess' children's books.

M is for Mischief: An A to Z of Naughty Children, by Linda Ashman & illustrated by Nancy Carpenter

I loved this book! It's hilarious! I remember reading this old fashioned book called Goops: and How to Be Them by Gelett Burgess when I was really little. I pretended I was in a one room schoolhouse, I read the old primer and other "old-looking" books my dad kept in his office, perhaps some I should not have read... Anyway, reading this book by Ashman took my right back to my Goop reading days in the "schoolhouse." The rhyming language, and extraordinary use of vocabulary is reminiscent to that of Burgess, and I LOVE IT.

This book is a collection a rhyming poems about naughty children. Each poem uses as many words in each short poem as possible using the child's name as the foundation. For instance, my favorite is the letter J -
"Joking Jackson
How that joker, Jackson, joshes:
Hiding jacks in Joe's golashes; ..."

Ha! It's so great! Plus, I suppose if you are brave enough to use this in a classroom setting, it could be a book full of mini-lessons on behavior. However, teacher be ware: the author provides a WARNING on the cover: "This book contains obnoxious children. Read at your own risk!"

The illustrations are really neat too, using all kinds of interesting design elements. For instance, there are pen drawings, water color, digital images, photography, and others. Did I say that I love this book?