Eek, You Reek!: Poems about Animals That Stink, Stank, Stunk

Millbrook Press October 1, 2019
with Heidi E. Y. Stemple
Illustrated by Eugenia Nobati
ISBN-10: 1512482013
ISBN-13: 978-1512482010

So I had a brilliant idea. Humorous poems about stinky animals. Lots of back matter. You know–skunk, stink bug, mink, ferret,. Had a moment’s doubt that there wouldn’t be enough. Google set my mind at rest. Talked to daughter Heidi about doing the book with me.

“Terrible idea,” she said. “Not enough different animals.”

I showed her the list.

“Who would read it?” she asked.

Every fourth grade boy in the universe.

“I’m not convinced.”

I wrote about six poems, handed them to her.

“Okay, I’m in, but I’m not writing my poems till the book sells.”

Thanks to Carol Hinz at Lerner’s Millbrook Press who found them amusing, asked for more, Heidi did her research, wrote her own poems. The illustrations by Eugenia Nobati  are howlingly funny and beautiful at the same time.