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My Kitten Won’t stop Talking

My kitten won’t stop talking.
She just prattles night and day.
She walks around repeating
nearly everything I say.

My kitten never says, “Meow.”
She never even purrs.
She mimics me instead
in that annoying voice of hers.

She waits for me to speak,
and then she copies every word,
or begs me for a cracker,
or says, “I’m a pretty bird.”

I’m not sure what to do, and so
I simply grin and bear it.
She’s been this way since yesterday;
that’s when she ate my parrot.

My Kiwi Is the Captain

My kiwi is the captain of a supersonic plane
that doesn’t fly to Switzerland or Singapore or Spain.
It doesn’t fly to Jordan or Jamaica or Japan,
or Serbia, Somalia, Samoa, or Sudan.

It doesn’t fly to Norway, Nicaragua, or Nepal.
It’s safe to say it doesn’t fly to anywhere at all.
But that’s the way it always goes for kiwis, as you’ve heard.
It’s true that he’s a pilot, but he’s still a flightless bird.

I Have to Write a Poem

I have to write a poem,
but I really don’t know how.
So maybe I’ll just make a rhyme
with something dumb like “cow.”

Okay, I’ll write about a cow,
but that’s so commonplace.
I think I’ll have to make her be…
a cow from outer space!

My cow will need a helmet
and a space suit and a ship.
Of course, she’ll keep a blaster
in the holster on her hip.

She’ll hurtle through the galaxy
on meteoric flights
to battle monkey aliens
in huge karate fights.

She’ll duel with laser sabers
while avoiding lava spray
to vanquish evil emperors
and always save the day.

I hope the teacher likes my tale,
“Amazing Astro Cow.”
Yes, that’s the poem I will write
as soon as I learn how.

It’s official: Kenn Nesbitt’s poetry is kid- and parent-approved! His ‘wacky animal poems’ carry the common thread of silly critters in impossible situations – a recipe for laugh-out-loud page-turning fun. Ethan Long’s black line drawings illustrate the hilarity, still leaving plenty of room for imagination.

I was a little concerned when the very first poem, “Tighty Whitey Spider,” features an eight-legged creature with a wedgie; not to fear, Nesbitt got it out of his system early on, and there is very little bathroom/body humor in the rest of the book. I was a fly on the wall listening to my kids discuss, “so, he has eight legs, is that four wedgies, or do the legs go around his body in a circle, so he gets eight wedgies?” Have a little math with your poetry, kids!

Several of the poems are written in the cadence of tunes that kids will recognize and may want to sing along to, including “Ferret Soccer” (Frere Jacques), “On Top of Mount Everest” (On Top of Old Smokey), and the title poem, “Tighty Whitey Spider” (Itsy Bitsy Spider).

Nesbitt includes animals of every shape and size, from amoebas to hippopotamuses; the poems also vary in length, from one short stanza to six or so. We liked the variety of subjects, rhythm and length; for some reason the kids preferred the poems that were read, not sung to a suggested tune (correction: my son is reading over my shoulder and tells me the singing is only a problem when I’m leading the story time!).

My Kitten Won’t stop Talking

My kitten won’t stop talking.
She just prattles night and day.
She walks around repeating
nearly everything I say.

My kitten never says, “Meow.”
She never even purrs.
She mimics me instead
in that annoying voice of hers.

She waits for me to speak,
and then she copies every word,
or begs me for a cracker,
or says, “I’m a pretty bird.”

I’m not sure what to do, and so
I simply grin and bear it.
She’s been this way since yesterday;
that’s when she ate my parrot.

Included with the purchase of the book is a free audio download; listeners young and old will enjoy hearing Nesbitt read and sing over 40 tracks. If you’d like a sneak peek (or listen) from his previous collection, My Hippo Has the Hiccups, visit the link before the end of April.

About the author: Kenn Nesbitt is the author of several funny poetry books for children; his work has appeared in a number of anthologies and school textbooks. He is often invited to visit and perform his poetry at schools and libraries, where he is met with an enthusiastic audience. Nesbitt is the founder of Poetry 4 Kids, a popular children’s poetry website. I wonder if he has any wacky animal pets at home!?

THE TIGHTY WHITEY SPIDER AND MORE WACKY ANIMAL POEMS I TOTALLY MADE UP by Kenn Nesbitt and illustrated by Ethan Long is just adorable! This book of silly animal poetry is probably geared towards elementary age children, but I think kids a little younger and a little older (as well as parents) will appreciate this book too! It is a very, very funny looks at some out-of-the-ordinary animals.

I know this book isn’t supposed to be for my age, but I was shocked by how much I laughed out loud while reading this book. So many of the poems are funny, but they are also very smart and full of little twists. I know kids will love the surprise endings. I think this really is a book that kids will want to read over and over again — even those reluctant readers.

My intention was to pull out a few poems that were my favorites, but when I started skimming back through the book, I quickly learned that I couldn’t list all of them. I guess that tells you something right there. Suffice it to say that there are so many great poems in this book that it’s nearly impossible to pick just one or two that stand out!

As I mentioned earlier, I was not really into poetry much as a child. I so wish I would have had a book like this one when I was in elementary school. Kenn Nesbitt makes poetry fun, and I think that’s exactly what we need to get kids hooked. I wasn’t familiar with Kenn Nesbitt prior to this book, but his is evidently a rock star in the kids’ poetry world. Besides having his work appear in textbooks and magazines and on national television programs, Mr. Nesbitt has a terrific (and very fun) interactive website for kids called Poetry4Kids. It’s definitely worth having your kids take a look. I especially liked that he had some lessons to help kids write their own poetry!

And just for the month of April, Kenn Nesbitt’s book previous book, MY HIPPO HAS THE HICCUPS for free at www.zinio.com/KennNesbitt until April 30th. This book is filled with many of the same types of silly animal poems as well as the funny illustrations.

What a fun book. Kenn Nesbitt combines animals and craziness into some wacky poems. Some of the poems are set to the rhythm of familiar tunes: Such as Tighty Whitey Spider (Itsy Bitsy Spider), Ferret Soccer (Frere Jacques),

Get Me Out of the Fish Tank (Take Me Out of the Ballgame)
Get me out of this fish tank,
Get me out of this bowl.
I was just trying to catch the fish.
They looked tempting and awfully delish
but I slipped and fell in the fish tank
and now my future looks grim.
I just went to see and found out something:
Cats don’t swim.

Won’t you give me a hand here?
All I need is a lift.
Help and I promise I won’t come back.
I’ll go elsewhere when I need a snack,
for I’ve learned a valuable lesson;
I know it’s not safe in here,
and the next time I want the fish I’ll bring
scuba gear!

There are more poems set to tunes you know as well as originals. They all have a catchy beat and are fun to read aloud! This will be great for the 6th grade classes intro to poetry and I give it 4 copies. Tighty Whitey also includes drawings and you can download the audio of some of the poems. The table of contents lists which poems are on audio and there’s also a separate track listing all the poems that you can listen too.



Just in time for National Poetry Month, beloved children’s poet Kenn Nesbitt has a new collection of poems called The Tighty Whitey Spider and More Wacky Animal Poems I Totally Made Up. Perfect to read out loud with your son or daughter, these poems will have you both giggling about the silly antics Nesbitt’s animals get up to.

I couldn’t resist such playful titles as “My Kitten Won’t Stop Talking,” “My Chicken’s on the Internet” and “Beavers in the Bathroom.” Nesbitt often ends each poem with a play on words that’s sure to appeal to younger readers. Ethan Long’s illustrations are fun to look at, too. The expressions on his animal faces match the action in each poem perfectly. I particularly liked his smug-looking flying pigs and grim-faced goldfish in a military-style tank.

Readers can also download companion audio tracks of Nesbitt reading quite a few of the poems himself. It’s quite a treat to listen to Nesbitt read while you follow along with the words and illustrations in the book. Instructions for downloading the tracks, which can be played in iTunes, Windows Media Player, Quick Time, and any other player that supports mp3 files, are included at the beginning of The Tighty Whitey Spider.

You can also check out Nesbitt’s great poetry website, http://www.poetry4kids.com. And Nesbitt’s collection called My Hippo Has the Hiccups is available for a free download or viewing online with audio tracks.

The Tighty Whitey Spider is exactly the kind of book my daughter would have loved when she was in elementary school. I can’t think of a better way to help younger children develop an early appreciation for poetry than reading Nesbitt’s poems.


Here is a poetry book devoted to silly poems about animals. Some of the titles include My Dog Plays Invisible Frisbee, Frog Ball, Snake Mistake, When Pigs Fly, and Hippo Sandwich. Yes, they are funny and a little wacky - this book should have you chuckling with smiles. Here’s a sample for you:

I have an amoeba I keep as a pet.

Today is his birthday; I didn’t forget.

I baked him a cake so incredibly small,

A microscope’s needed to see it at all…..

At last it was ready; the cake was all set,

And just the right size for my single-celled pet.

The candles were lit. It was perfectly frosted.

I set the cake down, and I instantly lost it.

Or how about:

My camel fights

With mighty knights.

It makes me feel distraught.

That’s what I get;

I bought my pet

Down at the Camelot.

Poems can be serious, moving, or light hearted like Kenn Nesbitt’s.

I think whatever form they come in they should be entertaining to both the writer and the reader. So if you’re looking for an ingenious way of combining words and perhaps want to inspire your kids to write their own fun poems, this is a good selection for you. I got to look at another title from this author, My Hippo Has the Hiccups and Other Poems I Totally Made Up. My Hippo is filled with more of the author’s zany humor (over 100 poems), and is sure to produce some good laughs. The poems aren’t just about animals, but rather offer a wide variety of topics, like My Father Looks like Frankenstein, My Car is Constructed of Pickles, When Vegetables are Angry, and Don’t Ever Bite Your Sister! It includes an audio CD.

Visit the author’s popular website, where you can find several other books of poems just for kids. You’ll also find some games and can read several of his most popular poems, and even find an online rhyming dictionary. http://poetry4kids.com/

Have fun! Oh, and you’ll want to know My Hippo Has the Hiccups is available as a free eBook. You’ll find a link to that at the author’s website.

Thanks to Sourcebooks for providing me with a copy of both The Tighty Whitey Spider and My Hippo for this review.

April is National Poetry Month, and what could be a better way to celebrate than with Kenn Nesbitt’s new collection The Tight Whitey Spider. . .And More Wacky Animal Poems I Totally Made Up.

Nesbitt’s poems are funny and have a well, wacky off-beat kind of humor that really connects with kids (and their teachers and parents, I might add). Lots of wordplay, clever rhyming, and sophisticated vocabulary fill this newest collection. One of my favorite poems is “My Chicken’s on the Internet.” This is some contemporary chick(!) as these excerpts show:

She write blogs for chickens

and she uploads chicken pics.

She visits chicken chat rooms

where she clucks about her chicks.

But not only is his pet chicken using his computer all the time; she’s ruining it:

I wouldn’t mind so much

except my keyboard’s now a wreck.

She hasn’t learned to type yet;

she can only hunt and peck.

Check out this great collection of animal poetry to share with the kids in your life. And if you like this book, you’ll also enjoy Nesbitt’s other collections of funny poetry. His website Poetry 4Kids is another wonderful resource–and you won’t be surprised to learn that it’s the most popular children’s poetry website on the Internet.

Enjoy!

The portion of this review listed in italics was written by my oldest son, John, as part of his “Tales of a Formerly Reluctant Reader” feature. All the ideas and comments are his own. My review follows his.

John’s Review: When my mom told me that we were going to read a book of poems before I went to bed, I wasn’t very excited. Poems are about love and stuff like that, things I totally don’t want to read about! But then my mom told me they were different kinds of poems. I didn’t believe her until I saw the cover of the book. A spider…in underwear?! I had to read this!

The Tighty Whitey Spider: And More Wacky Animal Poems I Totally Made Up is the funniest book of poems I have EVER read. Kenn Nesbitt, the author, is so crazy! The poems aren’t dull and boring, they are full of action and fun. A few of my favorites include I Bought a New Tank for My Goldfish and My Hamster Has a Skateboard. If all poetry was this exciting, I’d definitely read more!

My review: What can I say? Anything that gets my son excited about reading poetry has to be good! John was very skeptical when I told him about the book but instantly opened up after seeing the cover and reading the first two poems. They are full of wit and fun, I was honestly laughing a bit myself. There are several poems that should be read to the tune of popular children’s songs nursery rhymes. Those were a real hit! Let’s face it, little boys like it when they think they’re making fun of another song or rhyme!

The only thing I should mention is that some of the poems are a little on the crude side and do discuss bodily functions. Nothing totally off the wall or completely repulsive. Just something I thought worth mentioning. Still this book is still worth checking out! Exclusive audio is available online, including Kenn singing and reading many of these hilarious poems!

Kenn Nesbitt’s poems have always made me laugh. In fact, I’ve been a fan since I stumbled onto his website, Poetry4Kids.com many moons ago (pre-GottaBook, even!). Also, Kenn was one of the poets in the inaugural 30 Poets/30 Days here last year and a big help in making the first year as successful as it was. So, I’m a fan on many levels.

That said, his new book, The Tighty Whitey Spider (with illustrations by Ethan Long) would make me a fan even if I wasn’t already one. I’m lucky because his publisher, Sourcebooks, got me a book early, so I’ve already read Whenever Yaks Play Basketball, I Like My Triangular Cat, and Toby the Snowboarding Doberman. Yup. I have. I’ve heard some of the audio tracks you can hear when you get the book, too, all performed by Kenn. And guess what? The poems, the audio, and the book make me laugh. Nuff said.

You can judge for yourself, though. I’m gonna leave you with a poem that is in Tighty Whitey but debuted here at GottaBook last year: My Chicken’s On the Internet. Also, Kenn’s last book, My Hippo Has the Hiccups is available as a freeeeeeee eBook until the end of National Poetry Month (or you can just enjoy it online at the same link). Go see if it makes you laugh, too. If it does, check out Tighty Whitey Spider if you want some more. I know I’m biased... but I think you’ll end up agreeing with me anyway!

The Tighty Whitey Spider is perfect to review for National Poetry Month. It’s a book of silly animal poems written by Kenn Nesbitt and illustrated by Ethan Long.


First of all, the main little critter is sporting nothing but his tighty whitey underwear. This alone had my kids giggling. Then there is a dog that doesn’t bark, a cat that can fly, sky diving elephants, and flying pigs! That’s just some of the silliness Nesbitt has packed into this 97 page book and CD.


Kenn Nesbitt is celebrating his newest release along with National Poetry Month by doing a blog tour. As an added gift he is offering everyone a look at his first book, My Hippo Has the Hiccups. So follow the link and check it out. The offer ends on April 30th.


In addition to his hilarious books, Nesbitt is also the founder of one of the most popular kid’s poetry websites, Poetry for Kids.


I’d love to hear what you and the children in your life think of Kenn Nesbitt and his silly poems.


Thanks for stopping by.



Once young readers catch a glimpse of the cover with a spider in his tighty whiteys, they’ll be creeping and crawling to get their hands on this collection of zany rhymes–just in time for National Poetry Month!