No Fair! No Fair! And Other Jolly Poems of Childhood

by Calvin Trillin, Roz Chast (Illustrator)

Overview

The first children's poetry collection by award-winning writer Calvin Trillin -- illustrated by acclaimed illustrator Roz Chast!

Get ready to laugh out loud with Calvin Trillin's first collection of poems for children (and nearby grown-ups). Enjoy the whimsical cartoon illustrations by New York Times bestselling illustrator Roz Chast as you find out if Justin is "the awfulest kid in the class," if there's anything that Matt won't eat, and if you can send back a new baby brother.Inspired by some of Calvin Trillin's real-life experiences, No Fair! No Fair! And Other Jolly Poems of Childhoodcelebrates the humor of familiar everyday topics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545825795
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	09/27/2016
Sold by:	Scholastic, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
Lexile:	620L (what's this?)
File size:	57 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Calvin Trillin is a journalist, humorist, poet, novelist, memoirist, and food writer. A long-time staff writer at the New Yorker, he is also the Nation's "deadline poet." He has published thirty books, many of them bestsellers. His books include Remembering Denny, About Alice, Tepper Isn't Going Out, and Dogfight: The 2012 Presidential Campaign in Verse. In 2012, he won the Thurber Prize for American Humor. He lives in New York.
Roz Chast has been a regular contributor to the New Yorker since 1978. She has illustrated many books, including the New York Times bestseller 101 Two-Letter Words by Stephin Merritt and The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z! by Steve Martin. She is the author and illustrator of Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, a bestselling memoir about her parents, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Hometown:

New York, New York

Date of Birth:

December 5, 1935

Place of Birth:

Kansas City, Missouri

Education:

B.A., Yale University, 1957

Editorial Reviews

Perhaps no children's form is more ancient than the book of verse, those compilations of light doggerel meant to entertain and instruct. Done poorly, these anthologies come off as patronizing and pedantic, but put into the hands of Calvin Trillin and the illustrator Roz Chast, the results are a constant delight…Simple, funny and true. What more could one ask from a poetry collection for any age?…Children and their minders will find much to giggle over together in No Fair! No Fair!

The New York Times Book Review - Michael Ian Black

06/13/2016
Rein in your expectations: this is a book of wonderful illustrations and lackluster rhymes. Many start with clever ideas about coping with an unfair world: “How Many Stuffed Animals?” introduces a kid who solves her fear of the dark by sleeping under a mound of plush toys. But author and New Yorker staff writer Trillin’s verse never crackles with the possibilities of language’s playfulness, and the storytelling, particularly in the longer poems that dominate the collection, is equally pedestrian: “The animal pals that are piled in my bed/ Keep nighttime from being much scarier./ That’s why I need more. I’ve got plenty of room./ For me, it’s the more pals the merrier.” It’s only in one set of four short verses, grouped under the title “Evening Complaints” (there are also lesser “Morning Complaints” and “School Complaints”), that an authentically juvenile voice emerges. The anxiety and sense of being put-upon that threads through these verses are mother’s milk for Chast (Around the Clock), though, and her drawings are consistently funny. Ages 3–5. Author’s agent: Eric Simonoff, William Morris Endeavor. Illustrator’s agent: Jin Auh, Wylie Agency. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

09/01/2016
Gr 2–5—Longtime contributors to The New Yorker combine their talents in this collection of rhyming poetry with ink and watercolor cartoons. Zany and humorous, the illustrations tend only to reinforce plot points, with little to no attempt to extend themes. Rare exceptions occur, such as in "The Backseat," where a brother grimaces and cringes away from his sister as she crowds him in a car's backseat. Anyone who sat in a similar position with their sibling can relate to Trillin's chant "she'll slowly, slowly, slowly start to slide/Till parts of her are clearly on my side" and will audibly groan at the wide grin spreading across his sister's face. Unfortunately, most of the other poems and artwork are not as harmonious. In "To Get a Pet," for example, a series of cartoon panels simply chart events in the poem and leave little room for imagination. Awkward repetitive phrasing, likely implemented to aid the rhyming scheme, interferes with the flow of several poems, as in "Eating Habits": "Matt loved the food most kids considered weird./Weird food from this boy's plate just disappeared." While adults may take such reverse phrasing in stride, emerging readers will struggle. Also, this title seems to be generally geared more toward boys, with nine out of 14 poems expressing male point of view through words or art. VERDICT A successful humorist whose work is better suited for adults. Consider for libraries with larger poetry collections.—Rachel Zuffa, Racine Public Library, WI

School Library Journal

2016-06-01
The Thurber Prize winner's first collection of poetry for children has a familiar feel, except for that blue hyena. In poems generally inspired by real-life experiences, Trillin turns his gaze upon the ebb and flow of childhood. The kids here are sure to strike a familiar chord with anyone who knows a stuffed-animal hoarder or has a sister incapable of keeping to her side of the back seat. For readers accustomed to Shel Silverstein, Jack Prelutsky, and the like, Trillin breaks little new ground with this collection, presenting such usual suspects as kids who want a dog ("To Get a Pet"), unwanted younger siblings ("Baby Brother Billy"), and bossy older siblings ("Who Plays What"). There are some notable exceptions, however, as in "Who's the Awfulest Kid in Your Class?" in which a nephew with an inquisitive uncle feels compelled to invent a bully. Trillin's wordplay can be enjoyable ("She's over the line, / She's over the line. / She occupies space / That's rightfully mine") but more often than not merely feels diligent. Chast's beleaguered, oft-frenzied, only occasionally multiracial denizens do much to elevate Trillin's familiar subjects. Her blue hyena is an exercise in child-friendly psychosis, while her pictorial demonstration of shoe-tying mishaps is laugh-out-loud funny. More of the same—but a nice more. (Picture book/poetry. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews