The New Kid on the Block
1984
First Published
4.06
Average Rating
160
Number of Pages
From beloved and bestselling poet Jack Prelutsky come over 100 hilarious poems about strange creatures and people—from jellyfish stew to a bouncing mouse, to the very unexpected new kid! For fans of Shel Silverstein and Louis Sachar's Wayside School series. “The illustrations bring the frivolity to a fever pitch.”— School Library Journal. Open this book to any page to begin your exploration. Here are poems about things that you may never have thought about before. You'll be introduced to jellyfish stew, a bouncing mouse, a ridiculous dog, and a boneless chicken. You'll learn why you shouldn't argue with a shark, eat a dinosaur, or have an alligator for a pet. You'll meet the world's worst singer and the greatest video game player in history. You'll even find an invitation to a dragon's birthday party.... This playful collection is a wonderful introduction to the pleasures of poetry and word play from a master of the genre, Jack Prelutsky. “It’s the author’s joyous sense of the absurd that propels the reader from page to page.”— Horn Book (starred review)
Avg Rating
4.06
Number of Ratings
10,902
5 STARS
42%
4 STARS
31%
3 STARS
21%
2 STARS
4%
1 STARS
2%
goodreads
Author
Jack Prelutsky
Author · 62 books
Jack Prelutsky is an American poet. He attended New York public schools, and later the High School of Music and Art and Hunter College. Prelutsky, who has also worked as a busboy, furniture mover, folk singer, and cab driver, claims that he hated poetry in grade school because of the way it was taught. He is the author of more than 30 poetry collections including Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep< and A Pizza the Size of the Sun. He has also compiled countless children's anthologies comprised of poems of others'. Jack Prelutsky was married to Von Tre Venefue, a woman he had met in France. They divorced in 1995, but Jack remarried. He currently lives in Washington state with his wife, Carolyn. He befriended a gay poet named Espiritu Salamanca in 1997 and both now work together in writing poems and stories for children and adults alike.
