Category: News

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.

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

• Dad of Divas
• Young Adult Books – What We’re Reading Now

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.”

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

• Publisher’s Weekly
• Reading Rumpus
• Through the Looking Glass Children’s Book Review
• Kid Lit Reviews
• This Kid Reviews Books

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.

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.

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, The Biggest Burp Ever: Funny Poems for Kids, 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 timeforkids.com/2015poetrycontest. 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: January 30, 2015

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

Today marks the release of my newest collection of hilarious children’s poetry. The Biggest Burp Ever: Funny Poems for Kids contains 70 new kid-tested funny poems about crazy characters, funny families, peculiar pets, comical creatures, and much, much more, all with wonderful illustrations by Rafael Domingos.

I promise you are going to love this book. But don’t take my word for it. Listen to what others have to say about it:

Take a deep breath. Hold on tight. Fasten your seat belt! The Biggest Burp Ever is another epic romp of rib-tickling rhyme on the endless roller coaster ride known as Kenn’s prolific pen! —Charles Ghigna – Father Goose®

Kenn Nesbitt has an amazing power: He’s a poet whose punchlines aim straight for the funny bone and rarely, if ever, miss. Here, in this brand-new collection, the Master of the Looney-verse pays another welcome visit to planet Mirth, delivering a pun-packed pummeling that is guaranteed to leave young readers everywhere reeling with joy. —Graham Denton, children’s poet and anthologist

The Biggest Burp Ever by Kenn Nesbitt dials up the silly factor to 11. With a verbal palette as bright as childhood itself, the Children’s Poet Laureate covers topics from Xboxes to pizzas to pets and delivers a chuckle on every one. Fair warning: Upon reading one of his punchlines, I had milk coming out of my nose, and I hadn’t even drunk any. —Brian P. Cleary, author of the Words are CATegorical series

The Biggest Burp Ever is now available in paperback from Amazon.com for just $9.95. In addition the the paperback, you can also read The Biggest Burp Ever as an eBook for Amazon Kindle for just $4.99.