I certainly hope Mr. Nordine wasn't the person responsible for picking and approving what this artist did. I loved the Colors CD and had to get the book to go with it. I would have been better off transcribing the work on the CDs than buying the book.

Frankly, I have to wonder what the artist was on when he drew this, then I wonder what the Editor was on when he _approved_ the art. I'm sorry, but I feel like I could do the drawings in my sleep. Had I seen sample pages, I would not have bought the book.

The pictures do not complement the words - they detract from them. If I were to read this aloud to children, I would be totally lost trying to follow the words on the pages.

My recommendation: But the CD, skip the book.

I was first introduced to the sounds of Ken Nordine at a concert (The Barenaked Ladies) during their "Maroon" tour. The concert opened up with a spoken word/song called "Maroon." The voice sounded familiar but I couldn't quite place it. I found out it was the famous Ken Nordine from his "Colors" CD. I immediately found it on amazon.com and found that there was a children's book that went along with the CD. Now I don't have children, but since I love Nordine's work, I felt that I should buy the book along with the CD. I am not sorry I did! I don't care how old you are; everyone will enjoy this book and the illustrations.

The book focuses on these colors:

Green ("smack dab in the middle of the spectrum")
Yellow ("you know how green can be - didn't want yellow in")
Azure ("azure is bored with just being blue")
Black ("as the ace of spades is")
Gray ("absolute gray is the perfect gray")
White ("that the whitest white that white can be white")
Lavender ("lady lavender in the indigo house by the purple wood")
Orange ("only one color I think is much fun and that's orange")
Chartreuse ("chartreuse began to tremble just thinking of the trouble rhubarb could make")
Burgundy ("burgundy is fat, sorry to be so blunt but that's burgundy")
Flesh ("which, pure and simple is colorcentric thinking, popular in some corners")
Purple ("Purple, all dignity, all pomp, all put-on")
Olive ("olive, poor thing, sits and thinks that it's drab")
Magenta ("you know how witty and well connected magenta is")
Turquoise ("don't you know what effect you're having on everything? see the flash of you...turquoise...there...")

If you can, purchase the CD with this book. The book is difficult to read since the words go around the page in a fashion where it's hard to follow. I had no trouble following the words in the book while playing the CD. The one thing children will love is that the book is colorful and fun to look at.

My 7 yr. old daughter picked up this book in our local store and INSISTED I buy it, which is something she rarely does. I did buy it, and when I read it to her (it has rather sophisticated vocabulary for young readers) I loved it too. It's an interesting, graphic format, kind of "postmodern" and fun!

My mother in law sent this book for our 2 year old and I was disgusted. Pulling boogers and poking eyes is NOT what I want to teach my 2 year old now that we have a new baby in the house. It is definitely not for small children.

This is a fun "touch me, feel me" book--complete with fuzzy dragons (like "Pat the Bunny"), mirrors, pop-up parts, mini-books in books, etc.--a 3D experience. It's a well crafted, fun read, about two little kids encountering their first "Beastie." It's a "Where the Wild Things Are" combined with "Pat the Bunny."

It was a wretched wretched Thanksgiving the year I encountered Pat the Beastie. I was gonna to tell the story to try and emphacize the charm of this nasty little book, but now, thinking about it, I've decided the story is too dreadful. Ah well. Pat the Beastie is a great book though. You get to pull the beastie's nasty boogers and smell the beastie's stinky booties and take a trip down the beastie's slimy stomach. It's great fun, especially if you read it with a hoidy-toidy Brisish matron sort of accent. It's funny and gross and children get eaten, beats getting to try on Mommy's ring or feel Daddy's scratchy face or have Thanksgiving in Houston by a mile.

If you have ever heard the record of the story available around the 1950s, you will be very disappointed with this version. The music is inappropriate and intrusive. The story is shortened. What I bought the tape for was to hear the accents of the area in which the story was collected, the strong accents of the south. The story was narrated by someone with almost no accent at all, and certainly not the lovely, unique accents of that area.