Cautionary Tales for Children

Most of the reviews here are for the Edward Gorey version of Cautionary Tales. That's a really fun book, but readers should know that Belloc's little poems are a delight even without the pictures.Kids absolutely love them and are shocked by their wit. These poems give kids credit for being sharp enough get the joke---and not need absolutely everything sugar coated. When my daughter was six she was told to come to school with a poem to recite. Most of the kids had nursery rhymes or well known American poems. My daughter brought Belloc's The Lion and The Tiger. The teacher, who knew nothing was the poems, got a huge kick out of them, expecially The Tiger with its dry recommendation that "mother's of large families who heed to common sense, will find a tiger well repays the trouble, and expense."

Gorey chose to illustrate this Edwardian classic.

The introduction in poem form says it all. Is this book true?And is it True? It is not True.And if it were it wouldn't do,For people such as me and youWho pretty nearly all day longAre doing something rather wrong.Because if things were really so,You would have perished long ago.These poems are "not the nicest things you ever saw." And mostly parents will think they're not right for children to read. But the children may enjoy them and laugh along, for they know that life isn't all peaches and cream.I mean, a disobedient boy named Jim being eaten by a lion at the zoo, beginning at the boy's feet and working upward! Let that be a lesson to you, young reader, not to be disobedient. Stick with your parents when they tell you to do so.How about Henry King who chewed and swallowed string? Why, he became all tied up in knots inside and the physicians couldn't do anything about it. So the poor boy died.Then there's Matilda who cried FIRE and brought the firetrucks to her house. And the time she again cried FIRE when there was a fire--well, guess the rest.So if you and your kids can stand to face reality, this book has it in singing cadence, clever rhymes and spades (what you use to dig graves with.)

This is one of those books that should be required reading for all parents. The humor is pureBritish...i.e very droll.I first encountred it over 30 years ago when my own children were young and I have forgotten the times I ws asked to read it to them at their bedsides.I won't say more because I do not wish to spoil your fun when you do read the book.I will say that if you like Dr. Suess, you will love Hillaire Belloc.

I bought this as a gift, but it arrived late so I was unable to gift it to a relative who was moving. But I was glad because I ended up returning it. THe formatting makes this book really awkward to read. It is not formatted in verse. Its like they tried to be cute with it but alas it failed. Killed the charm IMHO.

This is delightful in every way and laugh-out-loud fun.

Poems to love forever. Rebecca who slams doors is in the original Childcraft book of poems, a gift from my mother in 1957 when I was 10!

Edward Gorey brings an obscure children's text into the light of modern times with all new illustrations. Sure to teach your child valuable lessons in a most unconventional manner, CTFC contains short stories, in poetry form, of children being eaten by lions, dying of stomach illness, and burning to death (to name a few) because they didn't follow the sound instructions of their parents. In the same vein as The Gashlycrumb Tinies, this one is fun for children and the adult with an unusual sense of humor.