Don't Put Mustard in the Custard (Picture Books)

Product Information

This book is a combination of ‘You Can’t Catch Me’ and ‘You Can’t Put Mustard in the Custard’ which were highly acclaimed pieces of literature when they were first released. The book is full of varying poems in terms of length and topic. Michael Rosen’s talent to articulate everyday situations in a child’s life is amazing, coupled with Quentin Blake’s ability to bring these topics to life. My favourite poem in the book is ‘Digital Watch’ because I enjoyed the nonsensical play with words which left me smiling. The general style of the poems can all be said to be conversational, this vital as it would allow children to easily relate to the pieces of writing.

Mustard, Custard, Grumble Belly and Gravy - Goodreads Mustard, Custard, Grumble Belly and Gravy - Goodreads

My girls love writing and my eldest is brilliant at writing poems! I’ve never seen this before but I think I’ll be purchasing for my girls now 🙂 Thanks for sharing with #ReadWithMeThis sounds like a very entertaining book. My daughter is a bit too old for it, but one for my niece in a few years, I think! You Can’t Catch Me' and 'You Can’t Put Mustard in the Custard' were first published 25 years ago and were groundbreaking collections of poems for children. All the poems are fascinating and at a first glance some look as though they might not work, but, rest assured, they sure do. 'Keith's Cupboard' is an example, when he won't get his tent out for his friend to play with, his mother intervenes and says, 'Keith, why don't you get your tent out?' The cupboard opens and the toys, including the tent, cascade out all over the floor. 'They keep buying him all this stuff and he doesn't play with it,' says his pal.

Mustard, Custard, Grumble Belly and Gravy | Michael Rosen Mustard, Custard, Grumble Belly and Gravy | Michael Rosen

This is a collection of Michael Rosen’s best poems, together with a CD for an audio book. I hadn’t read Michael Rosen since childhood – I had remembered his delight of nonsense words, but as an adult I appreciated the way he captures life from the child’s viewpoint. Some made me laugh, others made me cry.The poems in this book capture thoughts from a child’s eye view perfectly. As adults we stop spending as much time pondering small things like why Keith, who has so many toys, never plays with them in the poem “ Keith’s Cupboard”. We are often So consumed by time and schedules that we completely bypass the wonderful amount of things there are to procrastinate with in the bathroom like the boy in “ Bathroom Fiddler”. And we sometimes forget just how absolutely great it is to be cuddled as the baby in “ Who Likes Cuddles?” shows us. These tiny snippets of life that pass us by are fascinating to children and are the basis of many many questions that any parent of small children is used to answering every day. There is even a poem about them in this book too, “ Who? Why? Where? What?” I’m not sure if this is the same book as we have, but my boys both love ours and this is one of their favourite poems in it #readwithme Michael Rosen manages to capture all the funny, scary, worrying and down right silly thoughts that children have and write about them in a wonderfully free and engaging way. I love the way sounds and words are explored, expanded and repeated, they are so good to read out loud. His poems are a fantastic example of how writing should be, especially for children. He shows that any topic can be written about in any way and at any length because what makes writing exciting is being free to get your creative thoughts down on paper. Not how long your sentences are.