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A collection of spooky poems by Jack Prelutsky

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I remember the last time I took a group of children on a picnic: Queen Anne's lace underfoot, goldfinches overhead, the sun over all, and the kids spent the afternoon hunting for monsters. In those Elysian fields none appeared, but on the way home we amused ourselves telling monster stories. Mine were not well received.

A good monster story, the children informed me, should scare you out of your wits. By their standards, a good collection of monster poems should send you to bed with nightmares. And "Nightmares," by Jack Prelutsky, is the book that tells children what they always wanted to know about vampires, trolls and witches but were afraid to ask. The descriptions of victims being gulped, gobbled and clubbed senseless appalled me and will no doubt satisfy the boldest child's appetite for the ghastly.
He cracks their bones and snaps their backs and squeezes out their lungs, he chews their thumbs like candy snacks and pulls apart their tongues.
There's considerable Gothic claptrap in Prelutsky's poems and shades of Poe in his heavy use of rhyme. Reading them aloud, one forgives their flaws. Arnold Lobel's fine illustrations recall Edward Gorey but without Gorey's humorous overtones. Here come the danse macabre, the beast in the jungle gym, the bogeyman invoked by older sisters and brothers to make the younger ones mind. The power of Lobel's pictures is the power of suggestion, which is the power of darkness itself: what we don't know might hurt us.

"Witch Poems," edited by Daisy Wallace, will give nobody nightmares, only a lot of fun. Along with the comic poems about contemporary witches (even darkness has its lighter side), she includes incantations by Shakespeare and L. Frank Baum, and a few anonymous spells not written to please children at all but to raise a fair wind and make enchanted horses fly. All the poems are rich in the rhymes, refrains and wordplay of which good incantations are made, from E. E. Cummings's "Hist Whist" to Sonja Nikolay's "Witches' Menu":
Sweet lizard, sour lizard Smoked lizard heart. Leg of lizard, loin of lizard Lizard a la carte.
The splendid black and white illustrations by Trine Schart Hyman remind us that picture books do not need color to make them memorable. A wise woman, she shows us that witches are both fair and foul, and their faces as various as the faces of those who seek them.

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I remember the last time I took a group of children on a picnic: Queen Anne's lace underfoot, goldfinches overhead, the sun over all, and the kids spent the afternoon hunting for monsters. In those Elysian fields none appeared, but on the way home we amused ourselves telling monster stories.

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A poem shared on youtube by Jack Prelutsky.

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Deep In Our Refrigerator by Jack Prelutsky

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A "Stuck on Poetry" Presentation. Poem by Jack Prelutsky. Credits to Susan Yung, Emily Buchanan, and Esther Parobek for the visuals (from the CGI animation short "Runaway").

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Jack Prelutsky is a creator of inventive poems for children and adults alike. He served as the Poetry Foundation's Children's Poet Laureate from 2006 to 2008. Prelutsky grew up in the Bronx, and when he was young he studied classical music; though he decided to concentrate on writing instead of pursuing a career as an opera singer, he continues to sing.

In a Scholastic.com interview, when asked where his ideas come from, Prelutsky said, "Everywhere! Everything I see or hear can become a poem. Several toys in my studio have turned into poems. I remember things that happened when I was a kid ... Or I write about things I like or don't like. I love spaghetti and wrote a poem about it." Fabulous creatures and people inhabit his poems: the umbrellaphant, Uggs, and, in Scranimals (2002), banacondas, broccolions, and "the detested radishark."

He has written more than 70 children's books, often working with well-known illustrators such as Garth Williams, Arnold Lobel, and Marilyn Hafner. His poetry books include Stardines Swim High Across the Sky: and Other Poems (2013), The Swamps of Sleethe: Poems From Beyond the Solar System (2009), and Be Glad Your Nose Is on Your Face And Other Poems (2008). He has also edited collections of poetry for children, including The 20th Century Children's Poetry Treasury (1999).

Prelutsky lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife, Carolyn.

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Jack Prelutsky is a creator of inventive poems for children and adults alike. He served as the Poetry Foundation's Children's Poet Laureate from 2006 to 2008. Prelutsky grew up in the Bronx, and when he was young he studied classical music; though he decided to concentrate on writing instead of...

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Feel free to roam Prelutsky's website and find poems of facts that interest you.

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A website that gives some insight on Jack Prelutsky

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A website that gives some insight on Jack Prelutsky

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Find his books and poems by great level order as well as find other facts about him.

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Visit Scholastic, the world's largest children's book publisher. Whether you need a classic kids book or classroom-proven teaching materials, discover it at Scholastic.

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This video presents the poem "Bleezer's Ice Cream" by Jack Prelutsky

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Bleezer's Ice Cream by Jack Prelutsky - An animation

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Jack Prelutsky's poem Bleezer's Ice Cream animated in After Effects.

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A an interview with Jack Prelutsky, the wacky and wonderful poet

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Jack Prelutsky writes wonderfully wacky poems that children find irresistible. In this interview, Jack Prelutsky explains why he used to equate reading poetry with eating liver and considered writing poetry a hazard to his health. See full interview at http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/prelutsky