A Bad Case of the Giggles: Kids’ Favorite Funny Poems, Selected by Bruce Lansky, Illustrated by Stephen Carpenter

            This anthology includes fun poems that are highly engaging for students to read. Most of the poems rhyme and are no longer than a page. Each of the poems is illustrated with detailed black and white drawings that add humor to every page. My favorite poem is “Smart” by Shel Silverstein (page 7). This poem is told from a child’s point of view as she is given a dollar bill but eventually trades it for five pennies thinking it is worth more. When she shows her dad, she thinks her dad is so proud of her that he has no words, but in reality, her dad cannot believe she traded a dollar for five cents. This type of fun humor permeates the book with each carefully-selected passage.

            I would have this book in my second, third, or fourth-grade classroom so that the students are free to read the poems that they choose. I believe that these poems would be useful to intrigue students to read poetry. Every poem has a fun and simple rhyme pattern and rhythm that would be easy and engaging for students this age to read. Often, students grow to dislike poems since some poems have deep, hidden meanings, and the content is usually serious. However, this book can instill a love of poetry and show students that poetry can be fun and silly. Additionally, the poems in this book invite children to make inferences because not all detail is given. For example, in “Smart,” the students could infer that her dad’s reaction is actually from disbelief or disappointment and not pride like the speaker thinks. Inference-making builds students’ critical thinking skills, so I would definitely use poems in this book to have students practice this skill.