Available:*
Library | Material Type | Shelf Number | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Central Library | Juvenile Book | J 811 HARR | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Lebanon Junction Branch | Juvenile Book | J 811 HARR | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Nichols Branch | Juvenile Book | J 811 HARR | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
The instant New York Times bestseller featured on NPR's Weekend Edition with Scott Simon! B. J. Novak (bestselling author of The Book With No Pictures) described this groundbreaking poetry collection as "Smart and sweet, wild and wicked, brilliantly funny--it's everything a book for kids should be."
Lauded by critics as a worthy heir to such greats as Silverstein, Seuss, Nash and Lear, Harris's hilarious debut molds wit and wordplay, nonsense and oxymoron, and visual and verbal sleight-of-hand in masterful ways that make you look at the world in a whole new wonderfully upside-down way. With enthusiastic endorsements from bestselling luminaries such as Lemony Snicket, Judith Viorst, Andrea Beaty, and many others, this entirely unique collection offers a surprise around every corner. Adding to the fun: Lane Smith, bestselling creator of beloved hits like It's a Book and The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales , has spectacularly illustrated this extraordinary collection with nearly one hundred pieces of appropriately absurd art. It's a mischievous match made in heaven!
"Ridiculous, nonsensical, peculiar, outrageous, possibly deranged--and utterly, totally, absolutely delicious. Read it! Immediately!" --Judith Viorst, bestselling author of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Author Notes
Chris Harris was a writer and executive producer for shows such as How I Met Your Mother and a writer for The Late Show with David Letterman . His pieces have appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, ESPN, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and on NPR. He was also the author of the anti-travel guide Don't Go Europe! He lives in Los Angeles.
Lane Smith wrote and illustrated Grandpa Green , which was a 2012 Caldecott Honor book, and It's a Book , which has been translated into more than twenty-five languages. His other works include the national bestsellers Madam President and John, Paul, George & Ben , the Caldecott Honor winner The Stinky Cheese Man, and The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs , among many others. His books have been New York Times Best Illustrated Books on four occasions. Lane and his wife, book designer Molly Leach, live in rural Connecticut.
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-8-Those who claim to hate poetry will enjoy this riotous compilation just as much as those who love the form. Fans of Ogden Nash, Shel Silverstein, and Jack Prelutsky will rejoice in finding another member of their gang. Wordplay abounds: "If ever I find myself holding a gecko./I'll lecko." Typography is the source of gags, as when the letters "d" and "b" face off for a duel, turn to shoot each other, and fall over dead, having become the letters "p" and "q." And the title poem will have kids howling with laughter as the narrator repeatedly misses the most obvious rhymes: "I'm just no good at rhyming./It makes me feel so bad./I'm just no good at rhyming,/And that's why I am blue." Smith matches Harris's wit with his own zaniness, merging line drawings with printing techniques that add a variety of texture and mood. The interplay between text and illustration provides further delights. VERDICT A surefire winner for reading aloud or for snickering with under the covers. Every library will want to add this to its poetry collection.-Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Library, NY © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
This debut collection of verse from TV writer/producer Harris hits a poetry trifecta: high energy, rhymes that can rival Cole Porter's ("Nothing is impossible.... Every tooth is flossable"), and a torrent of ideas. Some poems turn on simple wordplay ("The Ice Cream Mondae"); others are surprisingly introspective ("I'm shy on the outside, but inside my head?/ I'm not at all shy-I'm outgoing instead") or appear sappy on the surface, only to catch readers off guard with an ironic swerve. Parodies of nursery rhymes, meta-poetry that builds on earlier poems à la nesting dolls ("Read me the poem that's titled 'The Poem That's Titled "The Poem That's Titled 'The Door'"), and comments stuck to the pages provide more surprises. Smith's homage to the 1950s aesthetic of artists such as Cliff Roberts is updated with diverse characters and loaded with over-the-top raucousness, and he includes some visual jokes all his own. The whole production is a worthy heir to Silverstein, Seuss, and even Ogden Nash: "If I ever find myself holding a gecko.../ I'll lecko." Ages 6-up. Author's agent: Richard Abate, 3 Arts Entertainment. Illustrator's agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Sept.)? © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Children are gooder and grown-ups are badder / At just about all things that matter, Harris declares in Grown-Ups Are Better (I), the first in a series of three poems of the same title. In this magnificently wacky romp through verse (rhymed and unrhymed, whispered and shouted, upside down and sometimes invisible), television producer Harris and two-time Caldecott honoree Smith prove just that, evoking childlike wonder with paeans to dragons, trick riddles, and raucous lullabies, helped along by Smith's inimitable dappled digital-media and watercolor designs. There are moments of sheer hilarity. Eight recounts the fate of a boy whose parents forgot to teach him the cardinal number an oversight that disrupts the entire book's pagination. In I Don't Like My Illustrator, Harris ridicules Smith, only to be gravely rebuked on the facing page. Classics aren't safe either. Two Roads concludes with a condemnation of Frost (Thanks for nothing!), and Jack Sprat (Updated) ends not with a clean platter, but death. But it isn't all unipedes (a one-legged centipede, of course) and ginormous hippos; the revelry is tempered by earnest wisdom, too, including insights for the introverted, the downtrodden, and the hopelessly mischievous. In the closing poem, Harris beckons, Let's meet right here in twenty-five years. While this moving, madcap anthem to language is sure to stand the test of time, readers will be revisiting it far sooner than that.--Shemroske, Briana Copyright 2017 Booklist