Naughty Boy: A Song about Myself

While John Keats earnestly thought he might be “among the English poets,” he also knew how to play with words. Full of whimsical rhymes and jolly rhythms, Naughty Boy: A Song about Myself pleases adults and children alike: children giggle hearing its happy rhymes (as do adults), and adults smile at the poet’s light-hearted, self-deprecating portrait. In this ear-delighting and witty frolic, Keats teases himself and teases the language.

He wrote Naughty Boy while on a visit to Scotland, feeling distant from his family in London, and sent it in a letter to his fifteen-year-old sister. Read this book aloud to your child, and together you’ll have the pleasure of it.

There was a naughty boy,
A naughty boy was he,
He would not stop at home,
He could not quiet be—
He took
In his knapsack
A book
Full of vowels
And a shirt
With some towels…

For everyone within earshot, the delight begins! And then together enjoy Grant Silverstein’s endearing color ink drawings, the perfect accompaniment to Keats’ words.

Born in 1953, Grant Silverstein is a self-taught artist presently living in Pennsylvania. He has exhibited widely in North America. He illustrated The Verb “To Bird” by Peter Cashwell (Paul Dry Books, 2003).