COCKLE STEW and Other Rhymes

Three nonsense rhymes, variously long, with echoes of Lear and Milne in the method, too much method in the madness. In the first, the Great Potoo, tired of eating cockle stew, determines to take ""a queen (who) can make/ a sauce or bake/ a pickle pie to please./ and certainly/ some broccoli/ and maybe even some peas!"" Whom to choose? ""a king cannot go wrong..."" A cockatoo is crowned--""BRING OUT THE POTS AND PANS""--but ""the only thing she knew"" was ""ROYAL COCKLE STEW."" The second is a little less obvious, a little more sly, and takes only two pages to make its point: ""Let it suffice,/ there is nothing so nice,/ as being disgraceful,"" says Thandius Knute in his lavender suit. The last tells of Lucifer Bee, a man of the sea, who'd sail to the Island of Zillybaree-but his ship is too well-stocked to move, so he builds a raft and reaches the island with ease. The Pictures are rather fun, the plots quite routine and predictable.