How pleasant, indeed.

Chronicle has just published His Shoes Were Far Too Tight, a collection of Edward Lear’s poems, selected and introduced by author/NPR commentator Daniel Pinkwater. The collection is illustrated by Calef Brown, a fabulous children’s poet himself.

With the book we received a CD of the euphonious Pinkwater narrating five of the poems. My favorite is the collection’s opener, Lear’s self-effacing self-portrait “How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear!”:

How pleasant to know Mr. Lear!

Who has written such volumes of stuff!

Some think him ill-tempered and queer,

But a few find him pleasant enough.

His mind is concrete and fastidious;

His nose is remarkably big;

His visage is more or less hideous;

His beard it resembles a wig.

…

He sits in a beautiful parlor,

With hundreds of books on the wall;

He drinks a great deal of Marsala,

But never gets tipsy at all.

…

He has many friends, lay men and clerical;

Old Foss is the name of his cat;

His body is perfectly spherical;

He weareth a runcible hat…

I think Mr. Lear and I would get along quite well, actually, amid our cats and hundreds of books.

Chronicle has also made the audio tracks available online. Add a little nonsense to your day by listening to “How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear!” along with “The Pobble Who Has No Toes,” “The Owl and the Pussycat,” “The Jumblies,” and “Some Incidents in the Life of My Uncle Arly” here.

—Katie Bircher

Squeak by growl

I have to say I laughed when the audiobook edition of Jerry Pinkney's famously wordless The Lion and the Mouse came into the office. But the production is from Weston Woods and I should have known better. While faithfully and realistically reproducing the sound effects that constitute the only printed text in the book, the CD is also awash with atmospheric African vocal music (by Sazi Dlamini, although more info about the music would have been welcome) and unobtrusive background noises that bring the sounds of the Serengeti to a viewing of the book. The CD includes both a version with page turn signals and one without, and I am still trying to wrap my head around just how you might proceed with that second one. An additional track features Jerry Pinkney talking about his life and work.

--Roger Sutton

The White Stuff

Over the course of Betty White’s recent blazing-hot comeback, she’s played a hit-taking, Snickers-eating football player; a pee-drinking anthropology professor (Community); exaggerated Larry David-esque versions of herself (30 Rock, Ugly Betty); and, in The Proposal, Sandra Bullock’s character’s randy grandma who harasses an unlikely stripper played by Oscar from The Office -- not to mention being, at age 88, the oldest person ever to host Saturday Night Live.

On top of all that irony-studded glamour, she narrates A Child’s Day Out (Blackstone Audiobooks), audio stories by Mary Sheldon. The five-CD set (approximately 5 ½ hours) includes seven tales following main character Lizzie and her pal Eric as they have bland elementary-school-aged adventures. Jaunty, inoffensive music plays in the background as White relates how the friends visit an aquarium, meet some farm animals, check out the library, etc.

Since her Golden Girls days, La Betty’s humor has come from the kindly, slightly bewildered way she delivers a bawdy line. She’s on best behavior here -- no kitsch, no hook -- and it’s more than a little dull. But there’s such earnest warmth to her voice (she could make the phonebook sound like a Hallmark card) that it won’t kill you to listen to these stories at least once, especially if you’re in need of a hug. And it also wouldn’t kill you to give your grandmother a call -- she loves you very much.

-- Elissa Gershowitz