"Ride a Purple Pelican" and "Beneath a Blue Umbrella "by Jack Prelutsky

Ride A Purple Pelican and Beneath A Blue Umbrella
by Jack Prelutsky

Books can transport you  - not just to the scene or setting described within but also to a past moment when that book loomed large in your life.   For me, Ride A Purple Pelican and its sequel Beneath a Blue Umbrella warp time and distance to transport me back to the years of early parenthood when I would sing these rhymes to two small children lounging contentedly in my lap.  Prelutsky’s rhymes are often wacky, sometimes lyrical, and undoubtedly delightful when sung to a self-created melody or simply just read straight.



"Ride a purple pelican,
ride a silver stork,
ride them from Seattle
to the city of New York,
soar above the buildings,
bobble like a cork,
ride a purple pelican,
ride a silver stork."

Often incorporating the names of American and Canadian cities, states, regions, and provinces, these poems are alliterative, funny, and highly rhythmical.  Young children soon become familiar with North American place names from Chicago to Saskatoon as they read these animal, human, and nature fables. Each collection includes 28 short poems and is organized with a single poem on the left page and its accompanying framed illustration on the right.  The book’s structure, Garth Williams’ watercolors, and Prelutsky’s highly readable poems work together to render these two collections highly accessible for even young preschoolers. 

Williams, illustrator of Charlotte’s Web and The Little House series, does not overload the reader with distracting details but enhances Prelutsky’s poems with beautiful visual counterparts.   He created colorful and whimsical depictions of frogs in tuxedoes, turkeys in cowboy hats, and even sad looking potatoes:

"Poor potatoes underground
never get to look around,
do not have a chance to see
butterfly or bumblebee.

Poor potatoes never look
at the fishes in the brook,
never see the sunny skies –
what a waste of all those eyes!"

Prelutsky is a highly prolific author of more than 50 poetry collections for children. He confesses to disliking poetry as a child but later realized that “poetry was a means of communication, that it could be as exciting or as boring as that person or experience.”  (http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/68)   Prelutsky was named the inaugural winner of the Children’s Poet Laureate award by the U.S. Poetry Foundation in 2006.  At http://www.jackprelutsky.com/, he offers tips for reading to young children and suggestions for classroom activities including “How to Write a Funny Poem.”

As a parent, I found these poems utterly charming and appealing for my children and for myself.  They are highly enjoyable to read; the alliteration and rhythms make the stanzas trip off your tongue.  Ride A Purple Pelican and Beneath a Blue Umbrella are not stored in the attic but remain on our bookshelf, readily available for visiting nieces and nephews. In homage to the Tidewater Virginia area, I close with a favorite Prelutsky poem from Beneath a Blue Umbrella:

"Four fat goats upon a boat
sailed south from Newport News,
and there the four ate clothes galore,
they swallowed socks and shoes.

They chewed on boots, on shirts and suits,
they shared a sweater vest,
a dozen coats went down those goats
before they reached Key West."

After all, what’s not fun about clothing-eating goats on a boat?  Well, just try singing it and it’s even more amusing both for you and your audience.