Author: Kenn Nesbitt

Kenn Nesbitt, former U.S. Children's Poet Laureate, is celebrated for blending humor and heart in his poetry for children. Known for books such as "My Cat Knows Karate" and "Revenge of the Lunch Ladies," he captivates young readers globally.

New Poem Category – Songs!

Poem Songs for Kids

Poetry4kids has had “Poems by Category” for a few years now, but I recently added a brand new category: Songs. If you like poems that are intended to be sung to popular tunes such as “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider,” “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” or “Frere Jacques,” — what my friend Alan Katz calls “Silly-Dilly Songs” — you’ll want to check out this new section on Poetry4kids.com to find them all in one place.

And, of course, you can see all of the categories, including sports poems, monster poems, school poems, and even funny love poems on the Poems by Topic page.

2016 TIME for Kids Poetry Contest

Calling all poets! TIME For Kids has a challenge for you: Write a funny, rhyming poem. It must be an original poem that does not copy another poet’s work. Enter it in the TIME For Kids Poetry Contest. The grand-prize winner will receive an online class visit from Children’s Poet Laureate Kenn Nesbitt. The grand-prize winner and three finalists will each get a signed copy of Nesbitt’s newest book of poetry, Bigfoot Is Missing!, and their poems will be published at timeforkids.com.

WHAT: Write a funny, rhyming poem and enter it in the TFK Poetry Contest. Poet Kenn Nesbitt will look for originality, creativity, humor and rhyme in the style of his own poetry. To read some of Nesbitt’s poems, go to poetry4kids.com.

HOW: Enter your original poem in the online entry form at www.timeforkids.com/2016poetrycontest. Be sure to include your first name only, your e-mail address and your parents’ e-mail address. Contest is open to students who are 8 to 13 years old.

DEADLINE: February 15, 2016

Read the official rules here and a Q&A about the contest here.

New Book: Believe it or Not, My Brother Has a Monster

Believe it or Not My Brother Has a Monster

I’m so excited to finally be able to announce the release of my newest book, Believe it or Not, My Brother Has a Monster, published by Scholastic and illustrated by the incomparable David Slonim, the illustrator of such gems as He Came with the Couch, I Loathe You, and How to Teach a Slug to Read.

Believe it or Not, My Brother Has a Monster is of two brothers’ Halloween adventure, and my first rhyming picture book. The older brother finds a monster and brings it home, along with many, many other creepy-crawly creatures, including spiders, rats, toads, black cats, ravens, and more.

It happened just last Halloween,
the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen:
My brother went out after dark
and found a monster in the park.

He led it home and snuck it in
which gave me goose bumps on my skin
to see a monster standing there.
Those giant claws! That shaggy hair!

I had to struggle not to shout.
I hope our parents don’t find out.

With each creature the brother brings home, the mayhem in his room only increases, much to the dismay of the younger brother. What will happen when the parents finally discover what these boys have been up to? Without giving away the ending, let’s just say it’s a joyful surprise with a satisfying twist.

Believe it or Not, My Brother Has a Monster Interior

Here are links to a few reviews of Believe it or Not, My Brother Has a Monster:

 

How to Write a Tongue Twister

Tongue twisters are one of the most fun forms of wordplay for kids. The more challenging they are to speak, the more fun they can be. Most tongue twisters take one of three forms:

  1. Phrases that are hard to repeat several times in a row, such as “toy boat” or “unique New York.”
  2. Phrases or sentences that are hard to say, such as “she sells sea shells by the seashore” or “rubber baby buggy bumpers.”
  3. Poems like “Betty Botter” by Carolyn Wells.

You can create your own tongue twisters too. All you need is a pencil and paper, and a little imagination. Let me show you how.

List of Rhyming Sports and Games

If you are writing a poem, especially a list poem, that includes games or sports, you may find it useful to have a list of names of sports and games that rhyme. Here are a few that I have collected. These include sports, board games, card games, party games, and video games.

  • baton twirling / curling / hurling
  • bench press / chess
  • biking / hiking
  • blackjack / hacky sack / track / You Don’t Know Jack
  • Blockade / Old Maid
  • Candyland / marching band
  • canoeing / crewing / snowshoeing
  • capture the flag / tag
  • cheering / mountaineering / orienteering
  • Civilization / Operation / recreation
  • Clue / Taboo
  • dancing / lancing
  • decathlon / marathon / pentathlon / Pokémon / Settlers of Catan / triathlon
  • diving / driving
  • Donkey Kong / mahjong
  • gliding / riding / sliding
  • Go / hammer throw / javelin throw / kenpo / Pokémon Go / taekwondo
  • hockey / jockey
  • judo / Ludo
  • kickball / stickball
  • kick the can / Pac-Man
  • lacrosse / motocross / ring toss
  • polo / flying solo
  • rafting / crafting
  • race / steeplechase
  • rings / swings
  • rowing / throwing
  • skis / trapeze
  • sledding / shredding
  • t-ball / skeeball
  • truth or dare / WarioWare / We Dare

Click here for other lists of rhyming words.

New Book: Bigfoot Is Missing!

Bigfoot Is Missing! by J. Patrick Lewis and Kenn Nesbitt

Today is the birthday of my newest book, Bigfoot Is Missing!, co-authored with former Children’s Poet Laureate, J. Patrick Lewis. Pat and I had a terrific time researching cryptids (creatures whose existence has not yet been proven) from around the world and writing the poems for this collection. And we were thrilled at the selection of Minalima Design to illustrate the book.

Minalima, the design team of Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima, are perhaps most well-known for creating the graphic props — such as posters, newspapers, maps, etc. — for the Harry Potter films, making them a perfect choice for this “mischievous and slighly edgy” collection of poems about the creatures of shadowy myth and fearsome legend.

Bigfoot, the Mongolian Death Worm, and the Loch Ness Monster are among the many creatures you will find within the pages of this large picture book. Don’t be surprised if you have to look twice—the poems in this book are disguised as street signs, newspaper headlines, graffiti, milk cartons, and more!

Publisher’s Weekly gives Bigfoot Is Missing! a starred review, saying, “These brief, playful poems will whet readers’ appetites to learn more about bunyips, luscas, and Mongolian death worms. Luckily, endpages supply legends and details about these and other creatures, including where they can—or rather can’t—be found.”

Loch Ness Monster

Here are links to a few of the rave reviews for Bigfoot Is Missing!

Also, the publisher, Chronicle Books, has a Poetry Picture Book Teacher Guide here with Common Core connections for Bigfoot Is Missing! and several other poetry books.

TIME for Kids 2015 Poetry Contest Winnners

TIME for Kids 2015 Grand Prize Wiinner

Illustration by Kelly Kennedy

Congratulations to the winners of the 2015 TIME for Kids Poetry Contest! There were over 1700 entries this year! I had fun reading them all and selecting the winners, plus a few “honorable mentions.”

The grand-prize winning poem this year was “Once Upon a Milk Dud” by Braelyn Daily. Her prizes include a free autographed copy of my book The Biggest Burp Ever, and a free online author visit for her class.

In addition to Braelyn’s wonderfully funny poem, the finalists were “Upside Down” by Catherine Lee Haynie, “My Mother Bought a Robot” by Ceilidh Birkhahn, and “Silly Puppy” by Beatrix Kim.

You can read all of the winners, plus several honorable mentions on the TIME for Kids website, and in TIME for Kids Magazine.

A big congratulations to all of the winners and honorable mentions, and to all of the kids who took the time to write a poem and submit it. I loved reading all of your submissions, and you are all winners in my eyes.

How to Write a Traditional Nursery Rhyme

Humpty Dumpty

Some of the best known children’s poetry in the English language are the “nursery rhymes” of Mother Goose. Though no one knows for certain if Mother Goose was a real person, her rhymes have been popular with young children since the 1600’s. Some of the most popular Mother Goose rhymes include “Humpty Dumpty,” “Hey, Diddle Diddle,” “Little Bo Peep,” “Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater,” and many others. In fact, Mother Goose is credited with writing several hundred nursery rhymes.

But did you know that Mother Goose isn’t the only writer of nursery rhymes? “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” was written by an English woman named Jane Taylor. Many of the short nonsense poems of Edward Lear would qualify as nursery rhymes. And some, such as “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider” are “traditional,” meaning we don’t know who wrote them.

In the past few decades, a number of children’s poets have also begun writing new nursery rhymes. For example, Canadian poet Dennis Lee has authored a number of books, including Alligator Pie, Jelly Belly, and Bubblegum Delicious, that are filled with new nursery rhymes. American poet Jack Prelutsky followed suit with books such as Ride a Purple Pelican, Beneath a Blue Umbrella, and The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders.

Many authors have even started writing funny “fractured” nursery rhymes, taking well-known Mother Goose poems and updating them with humor and modern ideas.

In fact, even you can write your own new nursery rhymes, and it’s not that hard. All you need is a pencil, a piece of paper, a little time, and your imagination.