Exploding Gravy : Poems to Make You Laugh

by Kennedy, X.J.; Allen, Joy

• ISBN13: 9780316384230
• ISBN10: 0316384232
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-04-01
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co

Summary

Do you like to laugh? To smile? Do you like poetry? If you like one, two or all of the above, this is the book for you. Inside these covers you'll find the best funny poems of X. J. Kennedy, a poet who knows what tickles us, all combined in a collection that pleases the car and delights the mind. In Exploding Gravy you will meet an absolutely terrible baby-sitter, and a vain witch, be told who to pet and who not to, be introduced to several dinosaurs and told some mixed up tales and yes, find out all about that exploding gravy -- and that's just for starters.

Author Biography

X. J. Kennedy's poems have appeared in more than one hundred fifty textbooks and anthologies and have been aired on the Today show, Good Morning America, and Garrison Keillor's radio programs. In recognition of his work for adults, Mr. Kennedy was the first recipient of an international prize for light verse awarded by the Academy of American Arts and Letters, and he is the 2000 winner of the Award for Excellence in Children's Poetry given by the National Council of the Teachers of English. He has published sixteen children's books and, with his wife, Dorothy M. Kennedy, has compiled the bestselling children's anthologies Knock at a Star and Talking Like the Rain. Formerly a professor of English at Tufts University, X. J. Kennedy lives with his wife in Lexington, Massachusetts. They have five large children and two small grandchildren

Table of Contents

Far-Out Families
Mother's Nerves	p. 2
Backyard Volcano	p. 3
Father and Mother	p. 4
Guinevere Ghastly Sits Baby	p. 5
Alarm	p. 6
Great-Great Grandma, Don't Sleep in Your Treehouse Tonight	p. 7
Help!	p. 8
A Social Mixer	p. 9
Making Light of Auntie	p. 10
The Vacuum Cleaner's Swallowed Will	p. 11
Long-Distance Call	p. 11
In the Motel	p. 12
The Cat Who Aspired to Higher Things	p. 14
Granddad's Rising	p. 16
Mother, a Dog Is at the Door	p. 18
A Day of Play	p. 20
Witches, Ghosts, Dragons, and Monsters
Wicked Witch's Kitchen	p. 22
Wicked Witch Admires Herself	p. 23
A Bright Spirit	p. 23
Whose Boo Is Whose?	p. 24
The Skeleton Walks	p. 26
My Dragon	p. 27
Sir Percival and the Dragon	p. 28
The Abominable Baseball Bat	p. 30
The Phantom Ice Cream Man	p. 32
Eats
Snowflake Souffle	p. 36
Exploding Gravy	p. 37
My Birthday Cake Is Acting Strange	p. 38
Skunk Cabbage Slaw	p. 39
Italian Noodles	p. 40
Unusual Shoelaces	p. 41
A Choosy Wolf	p. 42
Kangaroo and Kiwi	p. 43
Cocoa Skin Coat	p. 44
Giants and Dinosaurs
Hickenthrift and Hickenloop	p. 46
The Up-to-Date Giant	p. 48
Living on a Giant	p. 50
Woolly Mammoth	p. 51
The Trouble with a Dinosaur	p. 52
Tyrannosaurus Rex	p. 53
Dinosaur Din	p. 54
Diplodocus Holiday	p. 56
Longest Lizard	p. 58
Birds, Bees, and Beasts
Vulture	p. 60
Who to Pet and Who Not To	p. 61
The Whales Off Wales	p. 62
Cows	p. 63
Sea Horse and Sawhorse	p. 64
Bee	p. 65
Crocodile	p. 66
Lion	p. 67
Electric Eel	p. 68
Invisible Cat	p. 69
Snail	p. 70
Yellowthroat	p. 71
Octopus	p. 72
Skunk and Skink	p. 73
Giraffes' Laughs Last	p. 74
Peculiar Characters
Mechanical Menagerie	p. 76
Stan Stapler	p. 78
A Fashion Plate	p. 78
Swept off His Pins	p. 79
Hooked on Books	p. 80
A Nervous Sea Captain from Cheesequake	p. 81
Robert Robot	p. 82
Stevie the Internet Addict	p. 83
Uncle Switch	p. 84
What We Might Be, What We Are	p. 86
Ever Hear Tell Of...?
Medusa	p. 88
King Tut	p. 90
A Visit to the Gingerbread House	p. 91
Mingled Yarns	p. 92
Jerboa	p. 94
Whistler's Father	p. 95
Roc	p. 96
Unlikely Doings
Two Doorbells	p. 98
The Nineteenth-Moon-of-Neptune Beasts	p. 100
Mixed-up School	p. 102
Basketball Bragging	p. 104
A Mammoth Roller-Coaster	p. 105
Should All of This Come True	p. 106
Fairy Airline	p. 108
Instant Storm	p. 110
How to Treat Shoes	p. 112
Sheepshape	p. 113
One Winter Night in August	p. 114
Index of Titles	p. 116
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.