This is another themed poetry book by beloved children’s poet Jack Prelutsky. I like this one better than the other mostly because of its whimsical style. Each poem told the story of a monster like creature, most of them shown to be living in the house of a human. For example, the poem titled “The Snatchits” described tiny, fast little creatures to dart into rooms and steal things. Another poem describes monsters called Sneepies who sleep in the narrator’s underwear drawer. My favorite thing about this book, however, was its use of varied fonts and linebreaks to add affect. The main idea of this book was to foster an appreciation of poetry in children. ( )

My favorite poems from The Baby Uggs Are Hatching are The Snatchits and The Creature in the Classroom. The Snatchits is about a creature that “borrows” objects of yours to take to their home. The Creature in the Classroom is about a creature that will eat everything in sight, if given the chance to get into your classroom.

This book has fun poems with strange words that can’t help but make you smile as you read. I’ve always have been a Jack Prelutsky fan and was excited to read a book from his earlier work.

Extension Ideas

1. Have students write adjectives as they hear them from the Snatchits poem.
2. Read the poem, The Creature in the Classroom when teaching about rhyming words. ( )

This was one of may favorites book of poems when I was a child and recently read it to my children. The quirky creatures and sill words had my children in stitches! Most of the poems were written in language simple enough for my grade two'er to sound out and understand. The illustrations that are drawn along with the poems are just as fun as the words themselves. ( )

This book is full of wild and very unique creatures. The book is broken into poems describing the different creatures. The tongue twisting words and rhyming add for a fun, but challenging read. The wild creatures allow students to imagine a world of weird, but sometimes cute animals.

These silly fantasy peoms are great for children with an active imagination. Some use rhytming and would be great for whole group reading to young readers such as first grade. These poems contains many hard words that need to be blended to pronouce. Fifth or fourth grade readers would be best for this level of struture and word usage.
http://www.jackprelutsky.com/flash/index.html This website has acticties for teachers and parents that go along with Jack's poems and books. ( )