Dancing flamingos, poodle strudel, Glurpy Slurpy Skakagralls: The Puffin Book of Nonsense Verse has them all. Galumph with Lewis Carroll and his "Jabberwocky." Meet James Whitcomb Riley"s lugubrious whing-whang and A.B. Paterson"s football hurling emus. Learn to plant a mailbox, why yaks should be commended and the fate of Auntie Flo (who became a crow). And while you"re at it, don"t forget to chortle at Blake"s fabulous (or as Lewis Carroll would say, frabjous) drawings: a Greenland whale lounging in her nightie, Mother Hubbard"s pipe-smoking, flute-playing, goat-riding dog, along with dozens more. Like this excerpt from Roald Dahl"s James and the Giant Peach: We may see the venemous Pink-Spotted Scrunch Who can chew up a man with one bite. It likes to eat five of them roasted for lunch And eighteen for supper at night. But who cares! Let us go from the horrible hill! Let us roll! Let us bowl! Let us plunge! Blake has searched high and low to bring us some of the best nonsense verse in the English language. Along with time-tested favourites by Edward Lear, Ogden Nash, A.E. Housman and Spike Milligan, he includes the lesser known (but no less brilliant) Roger McGough and Jack Prelutsky. Also making rare and welcome appearances are John Updike and John Ciardi, two writers so well known for their serious writing that their extraordinarily silly poems are often (regrettably) overlooked. --Martha Silano