The Armpit of Doom: Funny Poems for Kids

by Kenn Nesbitt, Rafael Domingos (Illustrator)

Kids love Kenn Nesbitt's hilarious poetry! With their rollicking rhythms, playful rhymes, and mischievous twists, kids can't stop reading these poems. The Armpit of Doom includes seventy new poems about crazy characters, funny families, peculiar pets, comical creatures, and much, much more. REVIEWS Irrepressible, unpredictable, and raucously popular children’s poet Kenn Nesbitt was spawned in the same cracked petri dish as Jack Prelutsky, to whom he is the natural heir. A title guaranteed to generate “No, wait, read this one!” responses, The Armpit of Doom is more mayhem from one of the masters. (J. Patrick Lewis, U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate, author of Please Bury Me in the Library and many other books for children) Kenn Nesbitt wrote a book of poems A funny one I think. And though it’s colored black and white Watch it tickle you PINK! (Douglas Florian, author and illustrator of Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Space Poems and Paintings) Is there anything Kenn Nesbitt can't write a poem about? The Armpit of Doom features five dozen poems full of clever wordplay, impeccable rhythms and funny punch lines. To borrow from one of Kenn's titles, Please Don't Read This Poem, my advice is, "Please do read this book!" (Bob Raczka, author of A Year of Haiku for Boys and And Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word) Kenn Nesbitt's brain is the clown car of children's poetry. I don't know how they all fit in there, but they keep tumbling out, one after another, each one funnier than the one before it. (Eric Ode, poet and songwriter. Author of When You're a Pirate Dog and Other Pirate Poems) I liked ARMPIT (the book) a lot. Armpits are not my favorite body part. (Bruce Lansky, author of If Pigs Could Fly... And Other Deep Thoughts) Despite the many warnings ("Please Don't Read This Poem!") kids cannot escape the odorous allure of Nesbitt's THE ARM PIT OF DOOM! No problem. They won't want to! Instead they will find "There's only one solution. Here's what you'll have to Tell all your friends and family they shouldn't read it too!" (Charles Ghigna, AKA "Father Goose," author of Score! 50 Poems to Motivate and Inspire) What makes this collection most special are the contemporary details sprinkled throughout (the iPod, XBox, and Kindle, Red Bull, J.K. Rowling, scrunchies, computer woes). Kids will really love the clever nonsense in poems like "On the Thirty-Third of Januaugust" and "It's Fun to Leave the Spaces Out." Teachers, theirsentencesmightlooklikethisforafewdaysafterreadingthisbook!" (Janet Wong, author of You Have to Write) Fans of Kenn Nesbitt will gobble up this new offering, which combines his infallible command of rhyme scheme with the hilarious--yet oddly contemplative--wisdom of a child pondering the world. (Joyce Sidman, author of Swirl by Spirals in Nature)

Genres: Poetry

134 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 18, 2012

About the author

Kenn Nesbitt is the author of several collections of funny poetry for kids, including Revenge of the Lunch Ladies, When the Teacher Isn't Looking, and The Aliens Have Landed at Our School! His poems have appeared many bestselling anthologies, including every book in the popular Kids Pick the Funniest Poems series, and anthologies from Scholastic with nearly 2 million copies in print. He is also the creator of the world's most popular children's poetry website on the Internet.

Reviews

[Cindy Hudson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kenn Nesbitt knows how to make kids laugh while getting them to read poetry. His newest collection, called The Armpit of Doom: Funny Poems for Kids, continues that tradition with 70 new poems.

Featuring illustrations by Rafael Domingos, The Armpit of Doom is titled after the opening poem about a girl who walks into her brother’s bedroom and encounters a smelly surprise. Other poems are about kids who eat paste, don’t want to go to bed and even write their own poems. Here’s an excerpt from that one, called “I Wrote an Awful Poem.”

“I wrote an awful poem;
it was bad in the extreme.
I showed it to my sister
and it made my sister scream.

I never knew a poem could be
such amazing fun.
But that was just a blast,
I think I’ll write another one.”

Some poems made me chuckle, others made me laugh out loud. I expect it will be a hit with kids who like taking an irreverent look at the world around them. And if you read The Armpit of Doom with your kids, it could inspire you both to take a stab at writing your own funny poems.

The author provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

[Nicola · Rating 1 out of 5]

Miss 3 and I like to explore different books at the library and try to get different ones out every week or so; it's fun for both of us to have the variety and to look at a mix of new & favourite authors.

The Armpit of Doom: Funny Poems for Kids (Paperback)
by Kenn Nesbitt

She loved one of the anthologies that he edited so I thought we'd try this one. It was a miss for both of us. Neither of us felt the same enjoyment of the poems and it made a difference for her not having the big colourful pictures like in other anthologies we read.

[Shaun M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kenn's poems are light and funny and a great way to introduce kids to a love of poetry. They'll be giggling through each of these poems. My favorites in this collection are those like Bad Bertie Bartigan and Nimrod Nero, Superhero that tell the story of an eccentric character. Guaranteed to delight young readers (and those who are still young at heart).

[Tracie Anderson]

Winner of Poetry Foundation Children's Poet. Great book for kids to read, and a wonderful book for teachers to add to the class library.


8 - 12 years
Grade level 3 - 7

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this to my kids and they loved it 🩷

[Steve S · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple cute or funny poems and lots that are a dud for me, but I am an adult and out wasn't written for me.

[Tania Damian]

This book is a collection of hilarious poems that all elementary students would love. The 70 poems range in topics from entertaining families to weird pets. The poems are full of rhythm and rhyme. This book could be used by teachers to show that poetry can be fun and doesn't have to be serious all the time. Of course, it is also a fun book for kids to read when they have some down time.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used this book with my daughter's 4th grade book club. We used it to fill time when we finished a book before the end of our class time together. (We would start a new book the next week.) They thought it was hilarious!

[Jackie]

I thought that this story was a very goofy little story and would make poetry interesting for little boys.