Who wrote the old book of poems for kids, "It May Be So, It May Be Not"?

July 14, 2012 7:46 PM

I've got another "what was that thing from my childhood?" sort of question, and I've combed through Google and Amazon and Abebooks to no avail. A book of short quirky poems for children, probably illustrated. Mid 1970s. Very likely published by Scribners, we had tons of their hardcover books from an uncle who worked there (now deceased, so I can't ask him.) I thought the title was "It May Be So, It May Be Not", which was also the title of a poem in the book that went, either partially or entirely...

It may be so, it may be not
That ice cream's better cold than hot.
It may be not, it may be so
That rocks can dream -
But who's to know?

I also remember a poem to the effect of, if you're afraid in the bathtub, "simply turn the water off/And you'll find it won't affect you."

Can you help me find the title (if I've got it wrong) and author of this book? I love the line about how rocks can (maybe!) dream and would love to quote it, but want to be able to attribute it properly. It would also be nice to find a copy of the book for sale, but that's a bonus.

posted by tomboko to grab bag (3 answers total)

It was Frog Went Blah, by Arnold Spilka. Answer courtesy of Google Books.
posted by WCityMike at 8:14 PM on July 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Whoo! Many thanks, WCityMike. I did try Google Books, and I did try a few permutations of phrase, but not as well as you did! - I would never, never have recognized the title "Frog Went Blah", I don't remember that at all, but that's the 'may be not' poem in it, all right!
posted by tomboko at 8:23 PM on July 14, 2012

I think I'm in the wrong country for WCityMike's search to work for me - I just get a "no match found in Google Books, here's the same search on the wider web" page. So I apologise if this is the edition that that link takes you to, but in case it's not: as extra confirmation, here's an Amazon link to a Scribner edition from 1972, with a slightly different title ("And the frog went 'Blah!' and other poems").
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 4:33 AM on July 15, 2012