Sad Underwear and Other Complications: More Poems for Children and their Parents - Hardcover

Viorst, Judith

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689319290 ISBN 13: 9780689319297

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1995

Synopsis

Knock, knock
Who's there?
Someone with sad underwear.
Sad underwear? How can that be?
When my best friend's mad at me,
Everything is sad.
Even my underwear.

But sad underwear is just one of the many complications a person has to deal with. There's the first day of school ("Will they let me go when I need to go to the bathroom?") and pests like Wayne ("a fellow who clogs up life's drain") and bee stings and liver for supper -- and missing your dad.

This companion volume to the acclaimed If I Were in Charge of the World and Other Worries has poems for explorers and dreamers, for people who love unicorns, for people who'd rather have pets than baby sisters. Funny, poignant and always true, it examines and celebrates life with all of its perplexing complications.

About this title

About the Author

Judith Viorst is the author of the beloved Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, which has sold some four million copies; the Lulu books, including Lulu and the Brontosaurus; the New York Times bestseller Necessary Losses; four musicals; and poetry for children and young adults. Her most recent books of poetry include What Are You Glad About? What Are You Mad About? and Nearing Ninety.

From Publishers Weekly

Fans of Viorst's If I Were in Charge of the World will welcome this confection of light verse. Indicative of the child-centered approach, the category "Stuff You Should Know" includes the poem "Item of Information": "Just in case/ You were wondering what a disgrace is:/ It's, when you're in public,/ Scratching in private places." A poem in the "Questions" section asks, "Who decided that vegetables are something a growing child needs?" Other sections contain built-up knock-knock jokes or revamped fairy tales (e.g., Beauty laments that, once the spell was broken, "everyone thinks he's the beauty and I'm the beast"). Less fanciful than his full-color illustrations for Viorst's The Alphabet from Z to A, Hull's pen-and-ink drawings fill the pages with birds, unicorns, flowers and moons, but they do not reflect the variety of topics Viorst addresses. These poems skim the surface, breaking no new ground, but children will be entertained by their breezy simplicity and humor. Ages 7-up.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0689319290
• ISBN 13: 9780689319297
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 80
• Illustrator: Hull Richard