Children of all ages will joyfully swallow this book whole. The gleefully dizzy mood is intensified by Taback's use of black hand-lettered words set in blocks of bright colors laid atop orange or black backgrounds, and occasionally sprinkled with collage images (whose sources range from old field guides to the Wall Street Journal). For example, there are bogus front page headlines (""LADY WOLFS DOWN DOG"" screams one) a recipe for ""Spider's Soup"" editorial comments by the menagerie and Taback himself (""Even the artist is crying,"" says a small caricature of Taback when she meets her gluttonous end) as well as factual information (various types of flies, birds or dogs are clearly labeled and paired with accurate pictures). Older children should get a kick out of the amusing asides liberally tucked into every spread. The digested wide-eyed animals float in a confetti-dusted space (which matches her dress), while everything about the elderly woman's exterior is equally askew, including the pupils in her eyes.
What's more, the hole grows bigger to accommodate the increasing gastro-population-by the tale's end, it's the size and shape of the horse that causes her demise.
The lady’s stomach is die-cut, so as young readers turn pages, its contents change.įinally, the language offers asides on the original story that are an absolute delight: “I’d rather have ham on rye.” “She did it in one try” and “she had a frog on the sly.” For sheer exuberant fun with language and image, this book is a must for any library.In Taback's (Joseph Had a Little Overcoat) ingenious take on the cumulative tale, there's a die-cut hole where the old lady's stomach should be, so the audience can see where everything she swallows ends up. Animals are introduced in substantial settings, offering engaging back stories: the cat prowls city streets at night the cow ruminates among flowers (and cheese, and low-fat milk). The old lady’s gray curls spring from under her flowered hat. The illustrations are fun and stimulating, combining a folk-art sensibility with cartooning. There was an old lady who swallowed a fly. She swallowed the spider to catch the fly. Simms Taback (1932 - 2011) grew up in the Bronx and graduated from Cooper Union.He worked as an art director and a graphic designer and has taught at the School of Visual Arts and Syracuse University. Even the very youngest children may be invited to recite the order of steadily increasing animals in the lady’s stomach: “She swallowed the bird to catch the spider. The pleasures of repetition, humour and surprise in the language are, of course, still fully present in this version. Many children will be familiar with the old lady who swallows a fly-and then swallows successively larger animals to deal with the problem.
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