Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Apr 20, 2008

Núria rated it:

Un librito delicioso lleno de freaks para los que alguna vez se han sentido unos freaks. Es el típico universo de Tim Burton traducido en poemitas de una ingenuidad brillante. No es necesario decir nada más. Sólo añadiré que yo lloré con la historia del Chico Ostra y también con la de Chico Momia. Pero en realidad todos los personajes son tan entrañables que me gustaría poder adoptarlos a todos.

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 22, 2011

Andy rated it:

I've wanted to read this for a long time, and last year in Melbourne I went to the touring Tim Burton exhibit where most of the original cartoons and poems were on display. There's a great charm, wit, and naivety present throughout the illustrations, countering the dark subject matter. Sure, the rhymes aren't always that good or natural, the content base but ultimately it's easy to enjoy the grim misfortunes of a bunch of deformed and isolated characters.

As an aside, I asked my partn More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 22, 2008

Robert rated it:

Tim Burton, The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories (Morrow, 1997)

Someone needs to explain this to me and fast, `cause I don't get it: how is it that bad poetry (and yes, folks, this is truly bad) and art that looks like a second-rate Edward Gorey ripoff (Burton is not the illustrator that he is the sculptor and animator) can be so insanely funny? I am completely at a loss for why I liked this anywhere near as much as I did.

Let's face it, if you squint right whil More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Apr 22, 2008

Bobby rated it:

It's because of books like this I prefer to shop at used bookstores versus Amazon (well, and also because Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is a big supporter of Bush). I always loved Tim Burton's films but didn't even know he had books out until I found this little gem misplaced on a wrong shelf in a used bookstore (moreover, a bargain at $2!). Much like his films, the book is full of morbid/weird/freaky imagery, both in the text of the poems as well as the accompanying images. It has everything from R More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 22, 2008

Evil_Dead_Junkie rated it:

Pulled myself away from watching Sweeney Todd for the 183rd time to revisit this wonderfully nasty bit of work from Tim Burton. It's a little darker then most of his works, and the first time I was read it I was a little taken aback. He definitely witholds the happy endings he reserves for most of his freaks in this tome. Still it's funny, beautiful, a little sad and a little sweet. In other words pure Burton.

And as a boy with nails in his eyes myself, I'm glad someone finally put m More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jan 10, 2011

melo rated it:

è prerogativa di Tim Burton, qualunque storia folle partorisca, infilarne una su due, più o meno, una media di una su due.
non che abbia avuto ancora modo di valutarne tutta la produzione, e neanche che abbia la competenza, o un punto di vista cosiddetto obiettivo, per questo. resta il fatto che un libro preso quasi per caso un anno fa in quel d'Irlanda mi si è palesato tra le mani fino a stupirmi per un pomeriggio intero, al mare, come di certo non mi aspettavo da un libro di filastrocche.
certo More...

0 comments like

Apr 06, 2011

Aldrin rated it:

Half-oyster, half-boy, Oyster Boy is born to a perfectly human couple who supposedly conceived him after dining on “one spectatular dish- / a simmering stew of mollusks and fish.” Growing up, Oyster Boy, whose proper name is Sam but is sometimes called "that thing that looks like a clam," becomes a laughingstock (“When the Thompson quadruplets espied him one day, / they called him a bivalve and ran quickly away.) and a picture of sadness and reticence (“One spring afternoon, / Sam was More...

7 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 05, 2009

Cecily rated it:

At first glance, this looks like a total Edward Gorey ripoff, but Burton's crude, childlike watercolor and pen drawings are surprisingly heartrending, as if each is a metaphor for human failings or vices (or a victim of them). The accompanying poems are frequently as awkward as high school poetry (perhaps deliberately) but they have subtle wry, black humor. The title character comes from a poem about two parents who give birth to a boy with an oyster shell for a head, so they eat him as an aphro More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 19, 2011

Tracie rated it:

I get bored quite easily. I can count on my fingers how many books I've read twice; I only need one hand for books I've turned right back to the first page after finishing.

This was one of those books.

The poems are very simple - written in the style you probably learned in second grade - but seems perfect for the stories Burton is writing. The characters - especially Oyster and Mummy Boy - are as lovable as half creature/monster children can be.

I wouldn't recommend More...

0 comments like

May 31, 2009

Brian rated it:

This is a strange book. It is very short. It is poetry by Tim Burton supported by little drawings by Tim Burton. I don't know what to say.

Most of the poems are about children who are different, mostly different in appearances, and most of these children have a hard time coping with these appearances. But if I was a kid drawn by Tim Burton I would definitely have issues. Some of the poems are slightly disturbing. Most are funny. Some are just bizarre. The artwork is great.

More...

0 comments like

Jan 13, 2012

Sonatajessica rated it:

There is no way to judge it unbiased, it is Tim Burton after all.
Here we go, my totally biased, uninformed and therefor rather unhelpful conclusion after reading: This is the cutest thing ever. Adorable in a dark, slightly sick way, of course. Think Addams Family here, they would have cried over these touching little gems of poetry and story telling. If you think somewhat like them, you will love this.
To say something a bit more impartial, the poems and illustrations that fill this More...

0 comments like

Jul 20, 2011

Rachel rated it:

This slim volume is an excellent showcase of Tim Burton's illustrative genius, as well as his rather warped take on the world. Each of the stories addresses a rather simple premise and a very flat character, and yet there is a certain richness to the stories for the ways in which they open the window to a different set of perspectives and an imaginative view of existence. While I must admit that I would have enjoyed this collection much more had the stories less resembled doggerel and more resem More...

0 comments like

Jan 20, 2011

Josephine rated it:

This book was a real find. Hurrah for HMV actually, because that’s where I found it, and I read it in about 15 minutes, if that.
I don’t know quite why I like this so much. It’s not particularly well written poetry – I don’t know much about poetry, really, and even I know that parts of this book are bad, and the illustrations are far from amazing, but I do like it. A lot. It’s funny, really funny and it’s moving, really moving and it’s dark and clever and it’s mental and it’s twisted and it More...

0 comments like

Mar 17, 2008

Faith-Anne rated it:

I love this book to bits. It's bizarre and really funny. Characters from this book of small poems become forever ingrained in the imagination. It's definitely worth a read if you have a warped sense of humor, as I do.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 27, 2011

Rose rated it:

Love. This. Book. There's something so wonderfully artistic about this book I'm completely thrown into dream land by it. Though I've only seen very few of Burton's movies, this book makes me think this man's mind is a wonderful web of creativity & imagination unlike the common folk. It's the way I feel about Stephen King. Their minds aren't like us mere folk, they're on some other level where a wonderful, creative story will spring into being by the merest, simple thing; a plastic bag or a shoe, More...

0 comments like

Jun 24, 2011

مريم rated it:

شعرهایی غیرعادی و کوتاه و دردناک
...

واقعاً نمی دونم باید چه چیز دیگه ای درباره اش بگم
!

جمعه 30 اسفند 1387

6 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 12, 2010

Jasmine rated it:

I really wish that I was nicer than this, but some of the stories are just not written well. Some are definitely 5 stars, but a couple really need to go back to the drawing board.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jun 24, 2011

Sara added it

برای جشن هالوین , پسر صدفی تصمیم گرفت
برای ترساندن مردم خود را به شکل آدمیزاد در آورد

تیم برتون

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 01, 2012

Stacie rated it:

I freaking love Tim Burton! So you can imagine that I really enjoyed this tiny little book of poetry. It's very simple poetry---blunt, to the point, morbid, and oddly hilarious in some places. I was not expecting some of the sexual references to be in there. But the whole book was very cute and had it's own odd type of sweetness to it. Tim Burton has a particular style and his style oozes all over this book.

It's not the greatest poetry in the world (kind of kiddie, basic poetry), but i More...

0 comments like

Jul 22, 2010

Jon rated it:

It was fun to pull this quirky collection of (bad/silly) poems off the shelf and read them again. They're typical Burton; if you're into his stuff, you'll like this, if you're not into it, you won't like this. I'm still fond of these poems, though I don't completely know why. They're just really amusing. I suspect that Burton knows these aren't great poems, and that the kitschy, dopey rhymes are part of the point. These stories address common Burton topics, like: outsiders, alienation, unobtaina More...

0 comments like

Jan 15, 2012

MadauG rated it:

I have this new addiction to stumble upon. That's what led me to this book.
It's an amazing book, funny, creepy, odd. and very lovely. I like the illustrations.
They're odd yet sweet.in a bizzar way.

A match in love with a stick. He thought she was hot. and then quite literally burnt for her.
Crazy parents who have an oyster baby. and end up killing him and eating him to help their sex life.
The mummy boy who gets mistaken for a pineata. And the Voodoo girl, my favori More...

0 comments like

Nov 04, 2009

ame rated it:

Tim Burton is amazing.
(I know it's a cliche, but still I have to say this)

I already saw all of the Stain Boy and other characters Flash animation files sometimes ago in some website I long forgotten.
But this book is a hundred times better.

What I really love from Tim Burton is the way his characters can give me a really bad disturbing nightmare, but in the same time I can't help not falling in love with them.
I really do.

It's tragic, but it is More...

0 comments like

Feb 20, 2011

Emma rated it:

A creepy collection of truly melancoly kids. Oyster Boy, Staring Girl, Roy,the Toxic Boy, Jimmy, the Hideous Penguin boy,Stain Boy, Voodoo Girl and many others. All of their stories mished togeter to make a spooky Tim Burton-esque book. Oyster Boy, the cover story was a sexual mistake and his parents couldn't take it, so his father ate him. Yes, creepy. Ah, I love this morbid stuff- so if you're all roses and buttercups- don't read this book- read "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" More...

0 comments like

Nov 05, 2011

afiluvr94 rated it:

I LOVE THIS BOOK! Its absolutely amazing. If you love Tim Burton and don't have this book you must get it. Someone that worked at my middle school gave this to me. At first I didn't know who she was. Then she asked me if I enjoy it and I figured out who it was. I though she was letting me borrow it, but it turns out she let me keep it. When my teacher was helping other students with science work I would just sit and read this. I carried it in the back of my backpack from the day I got it, to the More...

0 comments like

Aug 14, 2010

Juan M rated it:

Un entretenido libro del mundo oscuro pero, a la vez, mágico de Tim Burton. Con personajes espeluznantes a primera vista, pero con un trasfondo bastante real, que terminan ganando el cariño del lector. Más de uno de estos personajes quedaran siempre en la memoria de quien sus líneas lea y sus dibujos vea.
En estos cuentos, lo macabro es transformado en algo grato gracias a la mano única de su creador, algo a lo cual nos tiene acostumbrado con sus películas.
Los dibujos expresan muy bie More...

0 comments like

Dec 21, 2010

Leila rated it:

Este libro, me hizo saltar de alegría cuando lo recibí. Estaba tan pero tan contenta... no lo podía creer. La tapa de mi versión no es como esta, cuando me lo entregaron, yacía entre mis manos un libro rectangular, tamaño normal, de tapa amarillas. Fue genial, salté por todos lados jajaja.
Lo leí en un día, incluso la parte en inglés (porque venía traducido en español y con el original en inglés atrás). Los dibujos de Tim son muy buenos, te da lástima ver a los nenes de esa forma, pero el l More...

0 comments like

Jun 03, 2010

Briynne rated it:

This was endearingly odd. I read it in about 15 minutes at my brother's this weekend, and don't really know what to make of it. It's exactly what one would expect. The poetry is excruciatingly, hilariously bad. The drawings are disturbing and creepy. And the little character vignettes are bizarre and characteristically macabre. The overall effect is perfectly Burton, and I enjoyed it for what it was. Only I'm still not exactly sure what that was, exactly. Definitely worth scanning throug More...

0 comments like

Mar 09, 2010

Lucas Rocha rated it:

I first saw this book during one of my visits to Tate Modern in London. They were selling this book in Tate's souvenir store. This book really got my attention with its simple, nonsensical, strange, macabre small poems supported by some really nice drawings by the author. It's a short and enjoyable book about children who are different and all the weird and morbid ways by which people deal with them. The Oyster Boy, the Voodoo Girl, the anti-superhero Stainboy, the Stick Boy, the Mummy Boy, and More...

0 comments like

Feb 08, 2012

Lisa rated it:

3 and a half stars

This took me about 30 minutes to read. Maybe. Some of the "stories" were only one or two lines long!

I quite like Tim Burton's movies. I love the whole gothic-humour thing he does. Just very morose characters and situations.

I don't hate this. It's cute in a morbid way. It has very miserable, socially inept characters who seem to suffer one way or another. And that's fine, I wanted the book to be that way.

I ju More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 09, 2011

Kaloyana rated it:

Любимият ми и строхтен Тим Бъртън!

Sue

To avoid a lawsuit,
we'll just call her Sue
(or "that girl who likes to sniff lots of glue")

The reason I know
that tihs is th case
is when she blows her nose,
kleenex sticks to her nose.

James

Unwisely, Santa offered a teddy bear to James, unaware that
he had been mauled by a grizzly earlier that year.

Разбира се, без картинките никак не е същото, но аз с More...

0 comments like

reviews