81. Hard-Boiled Bugs for Breakfast

Hard-Boiled Bugs for Breakfast and Other Tasty Poems. Jack Prelutsky. Illustrated by Ruth Chan. 2021. [January] 144 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: Hard-boiled bugs for breakfast, hard-boiled bugs for lunch, hard-boiled bugs at suppertime, Crunchy! Crunchy! Crunch!

Hard-Boiled Bugs for Breakfast is a new poetry book by Jack Prelutsky. Each poem--and there are over a hundred--is accompanied by an illustration. Most of the poems fall into the category of silly, nonsensical, fantastical, imaginative, ridiculous. A few are more heart-felt. Though this is a collection of 'tasty' poems, not all poems center around food and eating. There are plenty of just your ordinary old living life poems: you know, family life and relationships, school and homework, holidays. I especially liked the poems for some of the holidays.

I made a list of my favorite poems in this collection:

• My Lizard
• My Family's Last Picnic
• The Stir-Frying Pandas
• If I Had No Homework
• On the Last Day of December
• Ow!
• I Love To Sleep All Morning
• I'm Thankful for the Sunshine
• It's Mother's Day
• A Chicken on a Mountaintop

If you are a teacher looking to share select poems with your classroom, then this would be a good, solid resource. I liked the variety of poems--the topics and subjects, the narrative style, the length. I think this collection offers something for everyone.

A Chicken on a Mountaintop:

A chicken on a mountaintop
Was at a total loss.
She felt a need to cross a street--
There was no street to cross.
That chicken didn't fret too long
But simply used her head,
And sat and sat and sat and sat,
And laid an egg instead. (106)

Perhaps that one isn't my all time favorite from this collection, but it's fun and short. 

© 2021 Becky Laney of Young Readers