Camel's Lament by Charles Edward Carryl, Charles Edward Carryl, Charles Santore (Illustrator), Charles Santore (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

THE POOR CAMEL! While most creatures are prized, pampered, or at least tended to (down to the lowly pig!), the camel is our beast of burden, left to thirst, forage, and sleep in the merciless desert. This beautiful, comical picture book is for anyone who has ever thought the "grass is greener"! Award winner Charles Santore does it again!

Publishers Weekly

A camel's whiny yet comical complaint in this turn-of-the-century light verse serves as springboard for Santore's imaginative and droll illustrations. "Puppies are able to sleep in a stable,/ and oysters can slumber in pails./ But no one supposes/ a poor camel dozes-/ anyplace does for me!" Carryl writes in the same vein as contemporaries Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll, and though his poetry may not be as memorable, it unwinds with a lilting rhythm. Each stanza lists how, in the camel's opinion, other animals are better housed, fed and used, but the end of the poem contains neither a surprise nor a satisfying conclusion (his final beef: the other animals have better shapes, "But a camel's all lumpy/ and bumpy and humpy-/ any shape does for me!"). Santore's watercolors, on the other hand, combine naturalistic verisimilitude with anthropomorphous features, lending human character to the grousing camel and a plethora of other creatures. The artist renders the large-size animals-from the stunning scarlet macaw to the finicky poodles wearing pink napkins around their necks-with amusing details. The long-suffering dromedary himself is the most appealing here, whether eating scrub plants with an air of resignation, or staring Sphinx-like at readers with an enigmatic look in his eyes. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Rosa Roberts - Children's Literature

This poem is an ode to the camel. The author uses the animal kingdom to show the camel's magnificence and resilience. The camel is a highly adaptable and self-assured animal. The author points out in his poem how other animals need or expect certain things, but the camel is willing to be content as a respective creature in its habitat. The camel, proud of its position, exclaims "anything does for me, anyplace does for me, anywhere does for me, any load does for me, and any shape does for me!" The animal illustrations are realistic in this vividly colored book. 2004, Random House, and Ages 3 to 6.

School Library Journal

K-Gr 3-In rhythmic refrains, the homely desert denizen compares its lot in life with many other animals it believes are held in higher esteem. "Cats, you're aware,/can repose in a chair,/chickens can roost upon rails;/puppies are able to sleep in a stable,/and oysters/can slumber in pails./But no one supposes/a poor camel dozes-/anyplace does for me!" Carryl's 19th-century poem is enduringly silly, and the animal's self-deprecating lament is viewed with rather sardonic humor in Santore's full-page portraits that are at once elegant and comic. Facing pages featuring two quite different animals-parrots and poodles, kittens and pigs-provide strong images for read-aloud viewing. Their warmer tones contrast with the brown and gold double-page paintings of the ungainly camel in its desert terrain. The artist really has fun with this creature, painting it quite realistically and evoking fine humor in the expressiveness of its distinctive face and "lumpy/and bumpy and humpy" body. In a nighttime view, it rests in a moonlit Egyptian scene, and later it is struggling along carrying an entire nomad family and all of their worldly goods. "A camel comes handy/wherever it's sandy" and wherever a chuckle might do.-Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Santore illuminates this late-19th-century nonsense rhyme to pay a droll, if not luminous, tribute to the humble camel. Verse and illustrations compare the poor camel's practical palate, habitat, utility, and physique with that of other creatures. Poodles may lunch on chicken and cream, but camels get grass. Pigs may live in pens, but camels get sand. No one rides a rabbit, but everyone loads the camel's back. Weasels are sleek, but camels are all lumps, bumps, and humps. However sad the camel's lament, Santore's realistic, brilliantly detailed and textured signature drawings provide this whining forgotten beast of burden with unforgettable humor and dignity. Take a good look into the eyes of this camel. (Picture book. 3-6)

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