Author's Writing Characteristics

           Prelutsky’s books share a lighthearted sense of the absurd and focus on the simplest delights of childhood and the imagination. His approach to all topics is a positive and tender one that only occasionally strikes a note of being “too easy”. One word that came to mind often while reading his books was “gentle”. Younger children may enjoy being read these stories even more than older children will enjoy reading them.

           Because Jack Prelutsky’s more than fifty books have been published over many decades (he has been writing for nearly fifty years and has been published for more than thirty), they reveal a bit about the history of children’s book illustration as well. They would be suitable to use in an art history class for younger readers, and even casual attention to differences in his various books is worth the time. Prelutsky was the first ever Children’s Poet Laureate and it is easy to see why his unerringly positive verses received such an award in 2006.