about the book
Someday cars “Might look like cool dark chocolate bars, / Banana splits, hot dogs or fish— / Or any kind of ride you wish. / … [here’s] A futuristic sneak preview / Of wacky cars, fender to fin.”
There’s the Giant Bookmobile of Tomorrow, The Dragonwagon, The Egg Car, The Supersonic Ionic Car, and even an Eel-ectric Car. Oh, and The Bathtub Car. Can’t forget that “hot water heating / And porcelain seating.”
The Sloppy-Floppy-Nonstop-Jalopy is even “so unique there is no copy.”
What other quirky cars might the future hold?
about the authors
John Patrick Lewis was born in 1942 in Gary, Indiana, just twenty minutes after his twin brother. He wanted to be a DJ when he grew up…but found he hated talking to machines. He wanted to run the elevators at the Eiffel Tower…but was afraid of heights. After he grew up, he wanted to stay a kid. Instead, he earned a doctorate in economics and became a professor.
When John was forty, he rediscovered poetry.
Unfortunately, the poetry he wrote was very bad. So for three years, he read nothing but poetry and studied what he read. An editor told him to forget about writing poetry. She said there were enough children’s poets, but John was determined to prove her wrong.
While on a trip to Cumberland Falls, Kentucky, he saw a moonbow (a white rainbow). This rare phenomenon inspired his first children’s book, and since then he has published over 25 books!
John lives in Westerville, Ohio, with his wife, Susan. He visits fifty schools a year and talks about books and poetry. He tries to collect t-shirts with the school’s logo from each visit. So far he has over 400 T-shirts!
Source:
Author website
Also by J. Patrick Lewis:
When Thunder Comes : Poems for Civil Rights Leaders. Chronicle Books. 2013.
If You Were a Chocolate Mustache. Wordsong. 2012.
Last Laughs : Animal Epitaphs. Charlesbridge. 2012.
Edgar Allan Poe’s Pie : Math Puzzlers in Classic Poems. Harcourt Children’s Books. 2012.
Skywriting : Poems to Fly. Creative Editions. 2010.
Countdown to Summer : A Poem for Every Day of the School Year. Little, Brown and Company. 2009.
Underwear Salesman : And Other Jobs for Better or Verse. Ginee Seo Books. 2009.
The World’s Greatest : Poems. Chronicle Books. 2008.
Under the Kissletoe : Christmastime Poems. Wordsong. 2007.
Once Upon a Tomb : Gravely Humorous Verses. Candlewick Press. 2006.
Please Bury Me In the Library. Gulliver Books. 2005.
Arithme-Tickle : An Even Number of Odd Riddle-Rhymes. Silver Whistle. 2002.
Douglas Florian was an artist before he was a writer. His dad was an artist, so while Douglas was growing up, his home was like an art museum with paintings, drawings, and sculptures. His mother was an avid reader and helped him appreciate words as well.
His favorite book growing up was Sherlock Holmes because he loved observing things, just like the detective.
After studying art at Queens College and the School of Visual Art, both in New York, Douglas was a cartoonist for the New Yorker and created more than 300 drawings for The New York Times. Then he read William Cole’s Oh, That’s Ridiculous. This anthology of children’s poems inspired him to write his own poetry. That summer he wrote over 300 poems, which is a ridiculously large number.
Interestingly, Douglas says, “I love to write and I love to paint, but for some reason I hate to do them both the same day or even the same week. Perhaps writing occupies one part of the brain and painting another; each requires a different way of thinking and seeing.”
Since 1980, Douglas has written and published 40+ of books of children’s poetry. He considers himself an “authorstrator” because he thinks of pictures while he writes and occasionally words while he paints.
He lives in New York City with his family.
Sources:
Author biography: Poetry Foundation
Author biography and interesting facts: Paula O’Neil
Author biography and interview: ALA
Author interview: Poetry at Play
Also by Douglas Florian:
How to Draw a Dragon. Beach Lane Books. 2015.
Poem Depot : Aisles of Smiles. Dial. 2014.
Unbeelievables : Honeybee Poems and Paintings. Beach Lane Books. 2012.
Shiver Me Timbers! : Pirate Poems & Paintings. Beach Lane Books. 2012.
Poem Runs : Baseball Poems and Paintings. Harcourt Children’s Books. 2012.
Poetrees. Beach Lane Books. 2010.
Dinothesaurus : Prehistoric Poems and Paintings. Atheneum Books for Young Readers. 2009.
Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars : Space Poems and Paintings. Harcourt Children’s Books. 2007.
Omnibeasts : Animal Poems and Paintings. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2004.
about the illustrator
Jeremy Holmes was born in Landstuhl, Germany, and raised in Auburn, New York. Growing up, he was a “‘dork grader’ who couldn’t sit still long enough to tie his own shoes and who was constantly reprimanded for day dreaming.”
In other words, he didn’t draw much as a kid. If he’d had his way, he would have been a “musical mud man,” composing melodic mud farts with his bare feet stuck deep into swampy goo. But since there is no money in mud, he had to find something else to foster his imagination.
This led to his majoring in graphic design at college. Eventually, this field became too dull for him too, so he went back to school to get a master’s degree. It was at the Tyler School of Art in Pennsylvania that he discovered the world of illustration.
While trying to get his first book—There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly—published, he illustrated anything and everything he could. He even became an editorial illustrator for the New York Times, Wired magazine, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, and CNN.
If he had to have a different profession, he’d be a chocolatier.
Jeremy lives just outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with his family.
Sources:
Illustrator website
Illustrator biography: Amazon
Illustrator interview: Idle Illustration
Illustrator interview: Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
read more!
Bigfoot Is Missing! by J. Patrick Lewis
Bigfoot. The Loch Ness Monster. The Kraken. They are the stuff of legends, lurking just out of sight. Their existence had not yet been proven, so these wanted posters, newspaper clippings, signs, and news broadcasts are vital to…. “hold on there’s [something] scratching at my do—”
Digger, Dozer, Dumper by Hope Vestergaard
“Trucks that sweep and dig and shift. Trucks that dump and tow and lift. Hauling garbage, moving goods, building houses, clearing woods. Trucks as far as eyes can see…Which truck would you like to be?” Celebrate sixteen hard-working machines with these lively rhymes and fun illustrations!
Poem Depot : Aisles of Smiles by Douglas Florian
“Welcome to Poem Depot, / With smiles in the aisles. / There’s laughs galore / Inside this store, / and fun that runs for miles. / … You’ll laugh so much / At jokes and such, / Your sides will surely split.” These 170 poems cover a variety of topics and are meant to be “rib-ticklers and sidesplitters.”