Rhyme:

BoshBlobBerBosh: Runcible Poems for Edward Lear by J. Patrick Lewis is a collection of nonsense poems inspired by Edward Lear’s life and verse.  The illustrations by Gary Kelley really draw readers into the world of Edward Lear and the End Notes provide a wonderful historical look at his life, using nonsense verse.  It’s a terribly clever homage to one of the greats of nonsense.

Mary Middling and Other Silly Folk: Nursery Rhymes & Nonsense Poems by Rose Fyleman, Illustrated by Katja Bandlow.  A delightful collection of Rose Fyleman’s nonsense poems and rhymes, first published in 1931.  Rose Fyleman is responsible for encouraging A.A. Milne to write children’s verse!

Black and Bittern Was the Night by Robert Heidbreder is one of the most fabulous Halloween nonsense books you’ll ever find!  The Skul-A-Mug-Mugs nonsense adventure will have your tongue and imagination running wild on Halloween….”the quikstant they tot-took and crish-crilled to beds, fling-up again springsprung ghost-civvered tyke heads.”  Pure nonsense magic!

Smart Feller Fart Smeller and Other Spoonerisms by Jon Agee – a book dedicated to the reverend Dr. William Archibald (1844 – 1930), a professor at Oxford University, England, who was notorious for flip-flopping the initial sounds of words.  From the forward to the book, he said to a student who wasted a whole term, “Son, you have tasted a whole worm.”  The book is full of fabulously funny spoonerisms!

Reason:

The Table and the Chair by Edward Lear – a book from the Poetry for Children series.  A simple table and chair come to life, wondering, “if we took a little walk, we might have a little talk!”  As the afterward shares, “you know a poem is successful when it tickles your brain or touches your heart.”  Lear’s poems always manage to do one or the other, and in some cases both.