Yuck, You Suck!

This book has such a unique concept! There are so many creatures that "suck" that I didn't even know about until reading this book. The illustrations are gorgeous and the poems are so much fun to read. This is definitely a great addition to a classroom/ school library.

Fabulous high interest poetry for mid-to-upper elementary. Loved how Yolen chose such topics to grab student attention. Poetic devises abound. Great example of one way to classify and group topics….the boys (especially) in my classes the past few years would have jumped on this bandwagon for sure!

Miigweetch NetGalley and Lerner Publishing Group for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This is an illustrated poetry anthology for children centered around creatures that suck, such as mosquitos, fleas, lampreys, and (a surprise entry for me!) stingrays. I enjoy Jane Yolden’s work and I enjoy learning about animals, so this was a no-brainer request for me. I liked that there were examples of different types of poetry, and the concrete poem about butterflies was particularly well done. Classes with poetry units will benefit from this book, and the writing is versatile enough to be used with middle grades as well. For this reason I recommend this book to elementary and middle school libraries. I believe this is also a good book to have in elementary science classrooms, as it introduces factual information about common animals in a fun and accessible way.

The illustrations are delightful, and I enjoyed seeing the various creatures depicted on the page. They are cartoonish, a bit exaggerated, and endlessly fun. Everything about the layout of the book seems thoughtful and aligned, including the font choice, which makes each page a delight to consume.

Thanks to Netgalley and Lerner Publishing Group for the ARC of this!

We love middle grade non-fiction poetry and this was such a great collection. I really enjoyed the illustrations, the amount of information given, and my 6 year old found it enjoyable to listen to. I think this is perfect for the 6-10 crowd especially who could understand some of the wordplay, and really enjoy the humor and illustrations.

What an absolutely fun and creative book concept-
I am OBSESSED!!

Yuck, You Suck! was one of the neatest books I've had the pleasure of reading this year!
Inventive, humorous, lively and BEAUTIFULLY illustrated- I cannot say enough about it. The font, word choice and simplistic poetry style matched the vibe of the book - there is nothing worse than Times New Roman, long-winded paragraphs and big words to ruin a book that's meant to be enjoyable and entertaining for little ones.

This is a collection of rhyming poems about unique creatures in our ecosystem that thrive by 'sucking, slurping or sipping'. I was thoroughly engaged throughout and I can imagine this will ONE HUNDRED PERCENT keep the attention of some of those easily distracted kiddos. The illustrations are vibrant, quirky and the way the illustrator exaggerated certain features bring SO MUCH depth to the animals. Not only was I laughing and enjoying flipping through - I also learned a lot of cool facts about some of these well and little known animals.
Other praises about this book are that there were other suggested reads if you liked this, a list of anatomical terms for the parts of the animals that this book is about (with a description and interesting facts), more about each of the animals throughout the pages of the book, and ANOTHER glossary of other words that may need clarification.

I can't say there is a set age/grade level for this book because I think it's multi-faceted and can be versatile...while some of the poems and words may be too much for a young child, they will FREAKING LOVE to follow through with the pictures and as they grow up they can grow into the book more. As for older ages- I think the whole premise of the book is enough to entice them to want to read it...the name, the pictures, the gross nature of most of the creatures in the book- It's a WIN WIN for everyone!

DISCLAIMER- I do not have kiddos, and reading these are purely for recommendations to friends/family/educators AND to bring some silliness into my life....with that said, I'm 32 and I will be buying this book for my own personal library- yep, it's THAT good.