What do you think?
Rate this book
The Sheriff of Rottenshot: Poems
A collection of sixteen humorous poems including "The Sheriff of Rottenshot," "The Soggy Frog," and "The Ghostly Grocer of Grumble Grove."
32 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1982
About the author
Jack Prelutsky
121 books241 followersJack Prelutsky is an American poet. He attended New York public schools, and later the High School of Music and Art and Hunter College. Prelutsky, who has also worked as a busboy, furniture mover, folk singer, and cab driver, claims that he hated poetry in grade school because of the way it was taught. He is the author of more than 30 poetry collections including Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep< and A Pizza the Size of the Sun. He has also compiled countless children's anthologies comprised of poems of others'. Jack Prelutsky was married to Von Tre Venefue, a woman he had met in France. They divorced in 1995, but Jack remarried. He currently lives in Washington state with his wife, Carolyn. He befriended a gay poet named Espiritu Salamanca in 1997 and both now work together in writing poems and stories for children and adults alike.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 8, 2019
A wonderfully weird, and wacky collection of poetry that is sure to bring a smile and a dose of bewilderment of where these characters came from to land on these pages of metrical verse.
May 8, 2015
Ages K-grade 3
The poems in this book were really fun, and I think that kids would really like them a lot. There is a lot of rhyme and rhythm on every page, and the poems are about things that children would like. Several of the poems are tongue twisters that are really fun to read aloud.
The illustrations are very basic, black and white and sketchy, but they are humorous and add a lot to the poems.
As far as language, beyond the rhyming and rhythm, there are a lot of good rare words, such as novel (meaning new), cudgeled, pummeled, produced, indistinct, and marmalade. Because it is a poem, a lot of the words are in unusual phrases, for example, instead of saying "Cry" it says "shed a tear" and a phrase like, "At length there came that moment dread."
I would use this in a unit on poetry to get kids interested in poetry, because it is very much the kind of poems that kids would find funny. I would also use the poems at random times throughout a day to break up the day with poetry.
The poems in this book were really fun, and I think that kids would really like them a lot. There is a lot of rhyme and rhythm on every page, and the poems are about things that children would like. Several of the poems are tongue twisters that are really fun to read aloud.
The illustrations are very basic, black and white and sketchy, but they are humorous and add a lot to the poems.
As far as language, beyond the rhyming and rhythm, there are a lot of good rare words, such as novel (meaning new), cudgeled, pummeled, produced, indistinct, and marmalade. Because it is a poem, a lot of the words are in unusual phrases, for example, instead of saying "Cry" it says "shed a tear" and a phrase like, "At length there came that moment dread."
I would use this in a unit on poetry to get kids interested in poetry, because it is very much the kind of poems that kids would find funny. I would also use the poems at random times throughout a day to break up the day with poetry.
July 9, 2014
This is book is poems and there was this poem that was so funny. It's called "the court jesters last report to the king." "Oh sire, my sire, your castle is on fire, i fear it's about to explode. oh, my sire, the giant has trampled the school. there are bees in your bed and your nose has come off. April fool!" this book had really funny poems.
March 13, 2008
This is definitely my favorite book of children's poetry. "The sheriff of Rottenshot, Jog-along Jim, wore a ten-gallon hat with a five gallon brim." Yeah. I'm pretty sure that's the first line of the title poem. I'm a dork.
April 12, 2017
The Sheriff of Rottenshot is a book for young boys, or any young child with a rather grusome sense of humor I suppose. The two poems that I enjoyed were “The Sheriff of Rottenshot” and “The Court Jester’s Last Report to the King.” Both of these poems had endings that I was not expecting and made me giggle. The other poems were slightly more gross in nature. Kermit Keene gets eaten by a rather disgusting monster and “Twickham Tweer” and “Sadie Snatt” are poems similar in nature and are both absolutely vulgar, and besides those poems, many others are just weird. I did not personally enjoy the book, but I have a feeling that a young boy would get a kick out of it.
The poems in The Sheriff of Rottenshot are not poorly written per se, they were just written in poor taste for a female young adult. If for whatever reason I was in a classroom with all boys, I would definitely read these poems to them. One of the main things that I dislike about the book is the illustrations. They match the poems well and they are well-crafted, but they are often the most vulgar part of the book. The monster that eats Kermit Keene is hideous as it should be, the centipede in “The Centipede” has a fine story, but is also not appealing to look at. Everything about Sadie Snatt’s story makes me want to throw up, but a child would likely think the story to be funny. What I find most disturbing overall though, is the legs on the various grocery store items in “The Ghostly Grocer of Grumble Grove.” Those I will not describe, but you should check out the book if you would like to see them for yourself. They are well drawn, they simply look gross. The Sheriff of Rottenshot is a very plain and simple rhyming book that is absolutely perfect for immature young boys.
The poems in The Sheriff of Rottenshot are not poorly written per se, they were just written in poor taste for a female young adult. If for whatever reason I was in a classroom with all boys, I would definitely read these poems to them. One of the main things that I dislike about the book is the illustrations. They match the poems well and they are well-crafted, but they are often the most vulgar part of the book. The monster that eats Kermit Keene is hideous as it should be, the centipede in “The Centipede” has a fine story, but is also not appealing to look at. Everything about Sadie Snatt’s story makes me want to throw up, but a child would likely think the story to be funny. What I find most disturbing overall though, is the legs on the various grocery store items in “The Ghostly Grocer of Grumble Grove.” Those I will not describe, but you should check out the book if you would like to see them for yourself. They are well drawn, they simply look gross. The Sheriff of Rottenshot is a very plain and simple rhyming book that is absolutely perfect for immature young boys.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews