Monster Soup

Happy Halloween, one and all. Today I am going to be talking about one of my favorite holiday books from my youth: Monster Soup and Other Spooky Poems. Compiled in 1992 I had several of these Halloween-themed books as a kid and most have survived into adulthood. I don't look at them every October, but the one I crack open the most is this one. Monster Soup and Other Spooky Poems (Monster Soup from now on) is an anthology of poems from various poets around the theme of spooky whimsy. Dilys Evans compiled the poems while working with the illustrator (at least, according to the inside jacket). I don't always read the poems themselves, but I take some time to admire the absolutely gorgeous illustrations by Jacqueline Rogers. From the poem 'Thunder' by B. J. Lee Not all of the poems are great, and some of them fit the theme better than others. I quite like the whimsy of this one. But more importantly look at that art. I'm a sucker for the pasture, and even when I was a city-hungry child,…