Friday, January 27, 2006

You're a Goop!

One of my children's lit students brought this book to class this week:

The Gloop Encycopedia (ca. 1916) details all of the bad habits that children have, such as:

Beginning, Not Finishing
Fidgety Dressing
Clothes Snobbery
Silliness and Giggling
Yawning

the list goes one.
The bad habits are presented with little rhymes. Here's a sampling:

"When you are waiting in a shop,
Don't handle things like Sandy Mopp;
He nibbles and he tastes and takes
Such things as crackers, nuts, and cakes.
The Grocery Man, when Sandy's near,
Says, "You're a Goop! Don't Come in here!"

The Gloops are big-headed featureless folks:



I'm so glad children's lit has evolved. Although, maybe I needed something like this when I was a kid because I think I had at least 60% of the bad habits listed.

2 comments:

middlebrow said...

Children's lit has evolved? This book is wonderful. What do we have today that can compete with it?

lis said...

tara, you can get reprints of various goop books. check amazon and alibris (which even has a few of the originals)