Peter Conlon

2 / 1 / 2016
Dr. Burke
ENGL 414
LSW picture books
So I have chosen I know an Old Lady who Swallowed a fly retold and
inllustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott. The pictures themselves are very
unique and tell a crazy story about an old woman who did the titular action.
The outlandishness of it all is heighted by the zany pictures which all have an
active sense of motion and frenzy. The illustrator keeps putting cats and dogs
that the lady owns into the pictures. This is not part of the story but instead
gives the book a sense of tomfoolery as the reader is lead to believe that the
woman will eat her own animals. Instead the next picture is her eating a
random dog while her dog watches. This bait and switch occurs throughout
the book. Another element that would be appealing to adults and children
alike is the simplicity of the rhyming scheme. The rhyming scheme is not
exactly worth of much literary analysis, but it is clever enough and includes a
song that it can be sung to in the back. The poetic nature enables the story
to break character every once in a while and ask the reader dont ask how
she swallowed a cow, further adding to the crazy story which would be ideal
for children. This picture book embodies nonsense in a good way.
The characters are incredibly vivid in their emotions as shown on the
page. The cat has a fear of incredible anxiety as it considers its fate to be

eaten by his or her insane owner before being given a zany stay of
execution. A child could easily understand what each and every pictures
emotional dialogue is attempting to convey.