This book is packed with fun. Sixty-three short rhymes with fabulous funny, often hilarious poems and David Barrow’s wonderful colour illustrations accompany the silliness that is to
be had among these pages.
I loved ‘Mister Wishy-Washy’ who washes dishes. Dishy-washy, dishy-washy. Or ‘Shark in the Bath’. … if you’re calm and keep your head, the shark might eat the soap instead. Or an absolute favourite. Two worms poking out of a hole. One worm said to the other …
Hello little worm,
will you be my friend?
Don’t be silly, I’m your other end!
Joy Cowley continually produces outstanding books for children, and this is another one to add to the shelf. In A Lot of Silly she writes with echoes of writers such the also silly Spike Milligan. My high recommendation is to take a copy home, open it up and read aloud!
Reviewed by Emily Ross
Age Guide 4+
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joy Cowley has two writing desks. With her husband Terry Coles, she now lives in Featherson, Wairarapa, New Zealand, in a little cottage well suited to a couple of senior citizens; but they still have a house in the Marlborough Sounds where they lived for many years.
Joy sees herself as wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. This is who she is; writing is what she does, and she has been writing for as long as she can remember. Her writing for children began with an after-school job in 1953 when she was 16, editing the children’s page of The Manawatu Daily Times.
For almost three decades, Joy has travelled, attending conferences, visiting schools, and running writing workshops for people whose culture has not been adequately represented in their children’s books. She believes that children need to see themselves and their own culture in their literature. Now, in her seventies, she needs to limit travel but she still enjoys contact with children through hundreds of letters each month. “The day I’m not longer in touch with young people, is the day I stop writing for them, because the energy flows from them and goes back to them.”
Joy is a patron and trustee of Storylines, the Children’s Literature Foundation of New Zealand (CLFNZ) and has written a book on writing for children, “Writing from the Heart,” as a fundraiser for Storylines.
She also writes books of spiritual reflection and is a retreat facilitator.
When she’s not writing, Joy likes to spend time with her husband Terry, her four children, thirteen grandchildren and great-grandsons Mateo and Ethan. She also enjoys cooking, spinning wool and knitting, painting, playing the piano and any activity to do with the sea.
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