Asimov wrote seven collections of limericks over the course of his career— the three Lecherous Limericks books, the two "gross" limericks books (co-authored by John Ciardi), Asimov’s Sherlockian Limericks, and this book, the last and shortest of the bunch.

As with the others, I was distinctly underwhelmed in reading it. My biggest problem with Asimov’s limericks is the liberty he takes with scansion. The limericks can always be forced to scan, but it sometimes takes two or three attempts at a line before you can figure out how.

Beyond that, this book—as with Asimov’s Sherlockian Limericks— consists of “clean” limericks, which is, I suppose, a plus, but the results are really not terribly interesting or funny. On the other hand, the illustrations by Wally Neibart, are absolutely a delight and almost make the book worthwhile. (In particular, there’s an illustration of Asimov as an owl standing in front of a bookcase stuffed with his own books, used both for the cover in color and on page 10 in black and white which is marvelous.)

On the whole, as with the other limericks books, this one is a pass—at least for the adult Asimov fan. The book, however, is labeled “for children,” and so it’s only fair to get a better sense of the reaction of the target audience, in this case my ten-year-old daughter. She loved it. Inasmuch as she’s someone whose judgment regarding ten-year-old tastes I trust, I must defer to her better judgment. Read it. Enjoy it. Laugh a lot. Just make sure you’re not much older than ten.