Flapdoodle: Pure Nonsense From American Folklore (Alvin Schwartz)

We're starting our summer reading at the start of May this year, instead of waiting until Memorial Day, and I'm excited to announce our first read: Flapdoodle: Pure Nonsense from American Folklore by Alvin Schwartz.  This charming little book is one of my all-time favorites and has been since I was a little kid.

As a child, the folklore section of my local library was always my favorite place to be, and Flapdoodle was one of a handful of books that would check out again, and again, and again.  In fact, I used to fantasize that the librarian would stop me one day and say "You've checked this book out so many times.  You must love it!  Why don't you keep it?  It deserves a good home."  I'll be honest, I sometimes think that I was the only one keeping that book in circulation after a while.   But, it worked out well for me in the end.  I bought a copy online and not only was it in excellent condition, but it was signed by the author--something that was not communicated to me when I purchased it!  Imagine my surprise and delight when I first cracked open those covers and found Mr. Schwartz's John Hancock on the cover page!

Flapdoodle is a genuinely fun book full of poems, riddles, games, and funny stories.  And while I understand that modern children might not find it quite as clever as I did (considering that it doesn't have fart and butt jokes and TikTok trends), I still think it's well-worth a read.  I still recall showing it to a couple of my classmates that I ran into at the library, and the strange looks they gave me.  It was at that moment that I realized that while this book was certainly a hidden gem that I was very lucky to have found, it wasn't the sort of book that the average 6th grader was going to be chomping at the bit to read.  Which is a pity, since it's hilarious!