There Was a Man Who Loved a Rat and Other VILE Little Poems

There Was a Man Who Loved a Rat and Other VILE Little Poems by Gerda Rovetch, Illustrated by Lissa Rovetch
While calling the 14 offerings in this thin collection "vile" is a bit of a stretch, the subjects are certainly unusual. Ranging from a man who keeps his beloved lima bean "in a velvet bag/and only took it out to brag" to an individual who stores sardines in his jeans ("And when some slipped down on the floor-/that man would just stuff in some more"), there's an eccentric story on every spread. While the content is entertaining, the opening lines do make the four-line verses easy to confuse with limericks: "There was a man who lived in Sydney/who found a large abandoned kidney./And at a loss of what to do,/he slowly stuffed it in his shoe." Each poem is paired with a witty cartoon on the facing page that brings its nonsense to life. These black-ink line drawings, done on white paper plates with a single note of color, pop from their bright circular borders. Review from School Library Journal.
This is a picture book.