Sad Underwear and Other Complications: More Poems for Children and their Parents

by Judith Viorst, Richard Hull (Illustrator)

Overview

Knock, knock
Who's there?
Someone with sad underwear.
Sad underwear? How can that be?
When my best friend's mad at me,
Everything is sad.
Even my underwear.

But sad underwear is just one of the many complications a person has to deal with. There's the first day of school ("Will they let me go when I need to go to the bathroom?") and pests like Wayne ("a fellow who clogs up life's drain") and bee stings and liver for supper — and missing your dad.

This companion volume to the acclaimed If I Were in Charge of the World and Other Worries has poems for explorers and dreamers, for people who love unicorns, for people who'd rather have pets than baby sisters. Funny, poignant and always true, it examines and celebrates life with all of its perplexing complications.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689319297
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	04/01/1995
Pages:	80
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

Judith Viorst is the author of the beloved Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, which has sold some four million copies; the Lulu books, including Lulu and the Brontosaurus; the New York Times bestseller Necessary Losses; four musicals; and poetry for children and young adults. Her most recent books of poetry include What Are You Glad About? What Are You Mad About? and Nearing Ninety.

Read an Excerpt

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

Will they let me go when I need to go to the bathroom?

And what if I get lost on my way back to class?

And what if all of the other kids are a hundred, a thousand,

a million times smarter than I am?

And what if we have a spelling test, or a reading test, or

an...anything test, and I'm the only person who doesn't pass?

And what if my teacher decides that she doesn't like me?

And what if all of a sudden a tooth gets loose?

And what if I can't find my lunch, or I step on my lunch, or

I (oops) drop my lunch down someplace like the toilet?

Will they just let me starve or will somebody lend me a

sandwich? A cookie? A cracker? An apple? Some juice?

And what if they say, "Do this," and I don't understand them?

And what if there's teams, and nobody picks me to play?

And what if I took off my sneakers, and also my socks, and

also my jeans and my sweatshirt and T-shirt,

And started the first day of school on the second day?

CREDIT

You asked me to do it.

I promised to do it.

I planned to do it.

I started to do it.

I really meant to do it.

Except I forgot.

Couldn't I get some credit

For promising,

Planning,

Starting,

And really meaning to do it?

Guess not.

Copyright © 1995 by Judith Viorst