Rating: Needs Parent Supervision

I grew up reading these silly and imaginative poems, so it was fun to revisit them (well, most of them anyway). I never realized the old unicorn-in-the-flood lyrics came from Shel! There is plenty of edgy stuff: body humor, morbid humor, and a sometimes silly/sometimes dark sense of humor.

When I gave it to my son, there were a few that I removed or redacted:

  • Paul Bunyan (He goes to heaven and gets bored; chooses to go to hell and cuts trees there.  I just don’t like my kids imagining enjoying hell.)
  • The Googies are Coming (steals kids in the night; would spook my kids).
  • For Sale (if my oldest kid joked about selling off his sister, this would cause trouble I just don’t have the energy to deal with.)
  • Ma and God (I didn’t like the idea of juxtaposing my parenting against God’s creative expression).
  • Rudy Felsh (talks nonchalantly about Rudy going to hell)
  • Point of View (my kid is already a picky eater!)

In the special 30th anniversary edition I also removed: 

  • Monsters (talks about monsters under the bed; didn’t want to give ideas!!!)
  • Don’t Tell Me (I just didn’t like the attitude)