Super Silly School Poems

K-Gr 2—Starting with a rhyming introduction, Greenberg delivers 17 goofy, kid-friendly selections focusing on some familiar trials and tribulations of elementary school students. Dog-eaten homework assignments, class pets on the loose, lunchroom hilarity, and the requisite potty humor are all part of the equation. A poem called "My Teacher Is a Mind Reader" is an example of the overall tone: "If you as much as whisper/Your teacher is aware/Scribble on your desk/You haven't got a prayer/She knows you're eating candy/When she hasn't even looked/And if you're chewing gum/Dude, your goose is cooked!" Colorful, soft-focus watercolor images accompany each verse, expanding the humor and adding sight clues. The "Final Word" is "So you've read this book of poems/Did they knock you to the floor?/Did they poke you? Did they joke you?/Well, that's just what they were for." A suitably silly read-aloud choice to start the school year or to introduce a unit on poetry.—Luann Toth, School Library Journal