There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly!

There Was an Old Lady

by Lucille Colandro, Jared D. Lee (Illustrations)

The bestselling Old Lady series finally delivers its own version of the original, classic song: THERE WAS AN OLD LADY WHO SWALLOWED A FLY!

It's the Old Lady as you've never seen her before! Now she's swallowing animals from the classic story ... to create a home full of lovable pets!

With rhyming text and hilarious illustrations, this is the original song young readers know and love with a wacky twist. The perfect story to read all year long!

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Animals, Humor, Fiction, 1st Grade, Spanish Literature

32 pages, Paperback

First published August 26, 2014

Reviews

[Bea · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ending was a surprise but it fell flat.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fun book and a great play on rhyming words and repetition. The pictures are engaging and fun throughout this whole book. Really enjoyed reading this one with my little people. I also enjoyed seeing their little minds soak up what was happening next and how the plot built up to the end.

[Maddison Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Horrifying concept, exactly the kind of imaginative horror that kids love. I love the bounce of this book, how easy it is to read in a certain cadence and how well it flows. Jilly, Em (18 mo.) and Marg (4 yo.) all really enjoy it and remain captivated by what the old lady might swallow next.

[Natasha Hurley-Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

She swallows a fly and then it escalates quickly.

Language: Great. Kids love the surreal matrioska vibe. 5/5
Artwork: A bit too "messy" for my kid to really get it, but I liked it. 3/5
Fun: I mean, it's an old lady who ends up eating an entire menagerie. It's great! 5/5
Morals: Don't bite off more than you can chew! 4/5
Feminism: This lady isn't going to let body image issues stand in the way of her desire to consume the entire animal kingdom! Seriously though, I don't think there are any other genders in this book so I'm not sure I can comment. 3/5

[Mama Bibliosoph · Rating 5 out of 5]

The classic cumulative nonsense rhyme, "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" is the inspiration of an entire series of "Old Lady" books by Lucille Colandro, many of which are themed for seasons and holidays. Some of them are great, others are meh. This one (the original) is the best.

I'm a huge fan of Colandro's art. The action panels are a little busy for some kids (she uses a lot of lines), but the cumulative listing of animals in the Old Lady's belly is visually aided with a solid black background. The animals' expressions are always amusing.

Some might remember that each verse traditionally ends with "I don't know why she swallowed that fly. Perhaps she'll die!" The Colandro version is much less dark, ending each verse with "She won't say why!" instead. The song ends when she coughs up all the animals ("her new friends") after ingesting the cow. The horse of the traditional rhyme (which usually kills her) is absent.

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I review books for children from the perspective of a parent of kids with autism. The review above is part of a longer post on books about singalong books: https://www.lineupthebooks.com/40-sin...

[Spencer Rice · Rating 2 out of 5]

I cannot remember if my original experience of this story was in print, oral storytelling, or song form, however, I have always had a displeasure of the story in general. This adaptation is not as morbid as the original version I had experiences with, of whose rhyme for the fly was along the lines of ‘perhaps she will die’, so in a sense, I can see its popularity. The outlandish cartoon depictions and idea of the old lady unhinging her jaw to continuously fit larger and larger animals into her stomach, I can see as being an engaging and comical idea for younger children to read and listen about. That being said, I still don’t much care for this book, even with its more PG ending than what I was exposed to growing up. This is a spoiler – but the book ends with the old lady coughing out all the animals, with both the animals and her being totally unharmed. What really gets me is that fact that book calls them her new friends, with the last image of the book being a group shot of all the animals and the old lady smiling at the reader. Animals – She ate you, and then immediately ate another predator animal to try to catch you, why are you her friend all of a sudden?

[Andrea Aprile · Rating 4 out of 5]

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly is a very successful book for a good reason. This book is basically about an old lady who swallows various different animals and bugs. The story uses a lot of repetition and has a chronological order including suspense and sensationalism. This book is progressive because it has action from the start and it is hard to explain what the book is about without really giving away the whole story. The old lady starts out by swallowing a fly and from there she goes on to swallow bigger animals in order to catch whichever animal she swallowed previously. The illustrator Jared Lee does an amazing job using different illustrative techniques such as cross hatching, full-page bleeds and borders. Cross-hatching is found in almost every single illustration and it gives an effect that makes the book captivating. I really enjoyed this book, I believe that this is a book that will keep the attention of any child. Overall it is a must read for any child!

[Martha Reitter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a cute and clever book that always grabs children's attention. In the book, there is an old lady who swallows a fly just as the title states. She doesn't know why she swallowed that fly, but she is determined to catch it. Throughout the story she swallows increasingly larger animals to catch the one before and each one gets the children engaged and laughing at how silly it is. The book is very repetitive so it's a great choose for a read aloud and to get the students involved.

I would like to use this book in a 1st grade classroom and do a read aloud. After reading the book, I would want my students to put the events in order. This would help them register how sequence of events plays into a stories plot. Because this is a more predictable book, it won't be as hard to put into order and it will introduce the concept more smoothly.

[Megan Wittenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Follow the adventure of an old lady swallowing all kinds of animals. “There was an old lady who swallowed a fly, I don’t know why she swallowed that fly.” This book is a classic and I would definitely keep it on the shelf in my classroom. Not only is it a good book that a young reader can pick up and get a little giggle or two out of it, but it is also something that could be used within a lesson plan. You could use this in your classroom to read aloud and have students predict what would get swallowed next as the story continues. This book could also be used by giving students a little introduction into what rhyming may look like and see if they can return to their desks after listening to the story and potentially coming up with a few rhyming words of their own.

[Makayla Robles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn’t tell if this book was more humorous or more disturbing to be quite honest. This is about an old lady who swallows a fly, but then swallows a spider to catch the fly, then swallows a bird to catch the spider to catch the fly, and so on. She swallows so many animals that it makes her cough so hard that they all fly out of her and they all become friends. This story is absolutely ridiculous and will have you laughing! I’m pretty sure that there wasn’t any reason to write this book other than for pure entertainment. Each page rhymes and can be read in a melodic way. The characters in the story have very large features and have expressionate faces that makes this story a delightful read- no matter how disturbing it actually is.

[Katie Gharrity · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author: Lucille Colandro
Illustrator: Jared D. Lee
Reading Level: 2.1
Book Level: Lower Grades

Summary: It all started with swallowing a fly.

Classroom use: This book can be used to teach sentence fluency to students. It contains repetition and rhymes that produce a rhythm that students can easily follow. It shows them how this can create and easy and fun story to read. It can also be shown to show how repetition can be used to create organization in writing. I also like to use this book to make predictions. Once students know the basic structure of the books, I use the different variations to have students predict what will be swallowed and what will be created at the end. This can lead to students creating their own stories.

[Yessica Cancino · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am giving the book, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly!, a 5. This book is about an old lady who swallowed a fly, but we don’t know why because she won't say why. Then she swallowed a spider to catch the fly. She swallowed a bird to catch the spider, she swallowed a cat to catch the bird. The swallowed a dog to catch the cat. She swallowed a goat then a cow. But that is not where the story end. She coughed so hard that out flew out all the animals that she had swallowed and they became her friends. The plot of the story is a bit silly but as children read or listen to this story, they learn about rhyming and some end up memorizing the animals in orders. This is a story I would have in my classroom for students to read and it helps with their fluency

[Taylor Majewski · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly is a children’s picture book. This book is geared towards child in grades Pre-k – 3. This book is about a little old lady who swallows animals and then at then end she burps her “new friends” the animals. In 1998 this book won the ALA Notable Children’s book award.
This book is appealing to children because it use rhyming and sequencing. Children may be drawn to this book because of the humor in the story. This book is predictable because it uses the same repetition through out the book which can help children to want to read more. I would use this book while working with children and have them sequence the events in order that they happened.
Reviewed 12-5

[Madison Stepanik · Rating 3 out of 5]

"There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" is captivating with its combination of humor, repetition, and lively illustrations to create a joyful reading experience. This is still a very fun read, but I am fairly certain they've changed the story... The story used to go "I don't know why she swallowed that fly, perhaps she'll die." and now it goes "I don't know why she swallowed that fly, she won't say why." Not quite as fun as the original but it's definitely more of an appropriate switch to the story. Each page is visually fun to look at, depicting the growing chaos as the old lady continues her unconventional eating spree. The exaggerated expressions of the characters contribute to the overall hilarity of the tale.

[Liz Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is such a fun read!It's also a traditional read; meaning that many of us have likely heard the story before! The old lady swallows a number of animals and items that make children laugh uncontrollably. The illustrations are done in a grainy/gritty way that helps add character. They help kids visualize the story, as it may be a bit of a hard concept to imagine. I use this book with my preschoolers all the time and they love it! This book would also be great to use in the classroom as a tool to help teach sequence and order. I love this book and absolutely recommend it for preschool age up to 1st or 2nd grade!

[Claire Brignac · Rating 5 out of 5]

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly is such a fun book to read as a child and as an adult. The children in my class love to read this book. It is about an old lady who swallows a fly and then it escalates from there. As she swallows each animal, they just keep getting bigger and bigger as she goes and no one knows why she swallows that many animals. This book is a got-to-read book for any age because it is something fun! The illustrations in this book make it come to life while the author is explaining what animal she is swallowing next! Overall, a good read.

[Hannah Falgout · Rating 5 out of 5]

"There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly" by Lucille Colandro.
This book has never failed to make me laugh; it is just so silly. The book is about an older woman who swallowed a fly and won't say why. She swallows a spider next, then a bird, a cat, a dog, a goat, and a cow. Because the old lady coughed so hard, all the animals came out. This book is a rhyming book the illustrations are grainy but fun, and I am sure this book will no doubt make you and your kiddos giggle. This a fiction story because it is impossible to swallow some of these animals. The book is for younger children.

[Meg McGregor · Rating 2 out of 5]

This old lady can surely eat!

She swallows a cow, spider, fly, cat, dog, bird, and goat!

Normally, these books are very enjoyable and the girls generally really like them!

But not this one!

"I didn't like it because that old lady swallowed a dog and a poor kitty cat!" said each of the girls.

They gave it two stars; a very low ranking for them!

And I agree! Cats and dogs should be off limits, to swallowing, even if they become friends at the end of the story!

[Janyl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great fantasy book for children. The story starts with the old lady swallowing a fly. No one knows why she swallowed a fly. In order for her to catch the fly she swallows a spider. The old lady continues to swallow larger prey to eat what is inside of her. Lastly, she coughs and all of the animals come out and are her new friends. The illustrations throughout the book are very colorful. The book is very repetitive.

[Mary Greer Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustration in this book is filled with colors to attract young eyes. It is also filled with repetitive words and nonsense rhymes. Good read for young children learning phonological awareness. Good conversation piece for children to discuss their thoughts and make predictions. This book can be used in the introduction of language and literacy activity of writing a prediction or math in how much was swallowed.

[Melanie Paez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved these books while growing up. I believe the rhythm and the rhyme make it more enjoyable for children to read - and also the suspense of what the old lady will swallow next (great for predicting) It also makes for a great read aloud at home or in the classroom. There is also a series of these books that include seasons and holidays! The illustration by Jared Lee are eye catching and accompanies the text well.

[Emily Alig · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so fun for children! Lucille Colandro did a tremendous job with this repetitive story that keeps getting more extreme. This fantasy is fun for kids because of the ridiculous items/animals that the old lady tries to swallow. This would be a great book for a read aloud with children and there are so many activities that could be used to incorporate with it.

[Rebeca Riffe · Rating 5 out of 5]

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly is a book about a an old lady who keeps swallowing insects and animals to catch the other insect and animal she had just swallowed. This is a funny book to read aloud to students to help them recall or make predictions about the order that the old lady swallows things.

[Kimberly Medley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has predictable repetition after the lady swallows an item. Also, the book has a rhyming scheme for each item. A flannel board activity can be created from this book and the children can put each item in order of what the old lady swallows. Then, they can check it as they re-read the book and see if it is in correct order.

[Sereen Hudaib · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think a lot of children will like this book because of its fun, silly nonsense rhyme. The book has a proper sequence of events, and teachers could use it to help children figure out what comes next. Also, it has good rhymes. It could be an excellent use of rhyming words and repetition. The illustrations are kind of messy but filled with colors to keep the children engaged. I personally do not like this book for young children who will probably not understand the plot, and it might encourage them to put things in their mouths.

[AMY · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the basic story we all know. This time the lady keeps swallowing things related to animals to make a surprise later on. There is always a nice twist at the end of this series. Whimsical and colorful illustrations will keep kids laughing. A great read-aloud book for younger children. Highly recommended for Grades K-2.

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's the Old Lady as you've never seen her before! Now she's swallowing animals from the classic story...to create a home full of lovable pets!

With rhyming text and hilarious illustrations, this is the original song young readers know and love with a wacky twist. The perfect story to read all year long!

[Emily Heid · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is extremely creative in my opinion. I love how the sentences rhyme smoothly and how the illustrations add to the story. I can imagine that young children would enjoy this book because of how funny the plot is. I do not think it could be related to any subject in the classroom, but would be a great piece to read for fun.

[Reilley Clay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is pretty scary but in a scary way that i loved as a kid. I thought this book was terrifyingly funny and would definitely put this in my book collection for my classroom. to me, it's a classic , to me at least, I would use this for a circle time maybe before recess/lunch so the students are in a good mood for their free activities during the day.

[Thyme · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mistakenly got this version of There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly! without checking the author, and as such, I expected the standard ending for this book and was surprised to find that it ended differently. I do see some benefits to not having the old lady die in the end; however, if you're looking for the classic rhyme, then this book is not quite the right one.