The Scroobious Pip

K-Gr 5–The Scroobious Pip, from the unfinished nonsense poem by Edward Lear, is a mishmash of bird, insect, crustacean, and animal. As it travels, it faces questions from the beasts of the world: “For as yet we can’t make out in the least/ If you’re Fish or Insect, or Bird or Beast.” The creature responds, “Chippetty Flip; Flippetty Chip; My only name is the Scroobious Pip.” As it sits atop a tree, visits the sea, and then returns to sit below the tree, birds, fish, and insects ask what it is and all receive a variation of the “My only name is the Scroobious Pip” rhyme. Finally, the beasts, birds, fish, and insects circle around and accept that the Scroobious Pip is just the Scroobious Pip. Throughout the book, the rhyming text is on the left page of a spread; the opposite page shows the Scroobious Pip with a parrot head, goat ears, cricket legs, amphibian hands, lobster tail, butterfly wings, and a horn atop its head, wearing pince-nez glasses, a jacket, and a shirt, saying its name rhyme in big, bold, green text. Then the following spreads are full of detailed, realistic drawings of the questioning creatures in muted tones, with the Scroobious Pip standing out among them.