I Invited a Dragon to Dinner: And Other Poems to Make You Laugh Out Loud

by Chris L. Demarest (Illustrator)

Offers a collection of amusing poems by a group of new authors recently discovered through a nationwide contest.

Genres: Poetry, Picture Books, Humor, Childrens

40 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Writer and illustrator of works for children.

Reviews

[Child960801 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun and funny poems. Lively illustrations. The children enjoyed it.

[Barbara Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of crazy, nonsense, fun poems.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of twenty-nine poems by various poets filled with humor and laugh out loud silliness. A must-read for young and old.

[Katie Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book of poems are really funny to read. Kids have a wide variety of different types of poetry in this book. There are poems that have good rhythm (i.e. "Under the Bed"), poems that have a lot of rhythm and use sound ("The Attic"), and poems that use figurative language. I found myself wanting to keep reading because the poems are short enough that they didn't lose my attention, yet silly enough that I wanted to keep reading. The purpose of this book is definitely to amuse the readers, but I would also use it to teach vocabulary, because some of the poems (like "The Attic") have some words that would need to be figured out in order to understand the meaning of the poem. I was pleasantly surprised by this book. The poetry was imaginative and appropriate for children.

[Chris Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

I Invited a Dragon to Dinner: And Other Poems to Make You Laugh Out Loud by Chris L. Demarest. I love children’s poetry, there is nothing that can cheer you up faster than books like these. I didn’t take the title to heart and was in fact laughing out loud in the middle of the library as if I didn’t look strange enough surrounded by picture books. This collection of children’s poems is just specular. They are silly and funny and everything else a seven year old wants in their poems. This would be a great book for a classroom of any early childhood age. I can see first and second graders making up their own poems and illustrations to go with them. Creativity goes a long way in spawning more creativity in others and this book does that.

[Wendee Radmall · Rating 5 out of 5]

These poems are laugh-out loud funny! I picked this up at D.I., not realizing what a treasure I had found. Here is a sample:

"Another Rainy Day"
I'm feeling quite froggy
'Cause the ground is so soggy.
It has rained every day for a week!
My skin's turning green,
Flies look yummy to me,
And I'm starting to croak when I speak!
Oh, I wish it would stop!
All I do now is Hop!
This rain doesn't make any sense!
On the bright side of this,
If you give me akiss,
I might jst turn into a prince!

The pictures are very engaging, too. This is a great one to get kids interested in poetry!

[Nicholas Linsk · Rating 4 out of 5]

When first looking at the front cover of this book, it immediately got my attention. The large colorful illustration of the dragon on the cover is appealing to young readers. The illustrations are exaggerated and eye catching on each page. I Invited a Dragon to Dinner is a collection of funny, silly poems. The placement of the poems is minor compared to the bold illustrations. The poems were not only funny, but would keep the young readers attention. This book of poetry would be a great teacher read a lot book to share with his or her class or small group. Overall, the collection of poems and illustrations in this book were very nicely done.

[Rachel Keller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book of poems is so approachable for students. Most of the poems are about things that they have likely experienced. They are good examples of social/emotional literature, packaged in a fun way. One poem, called Martin's Extra Energy, is about a little boy who has so much energy his mother doesn't know what to do with him. I think the poems in this book, like the one about Martin, would be good prompts for a more social/emotional curriculum or learning experience. The book in intended to make kids laugh, which in itself can be eye opening and provide opportunities to gain perspective.

[Abby Crompton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute collection of poems from multiple authors that will make children giggle! I really enjoyed this book myself. There is a lot of rhyming which children enjoy and the pictures go great with the poems. A lot of the poems use great imagery and are things that children would think about normally. I would highly recommend this book because the subjects are those that children can relate to such as not wanting to eat your vegetable and monsters under the bed.

[Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Personal Reaction: This book full of different kinds of poetry is really fun to read. They are all lyrical and often nonsense, but really fun and silly. I would have really enjoyed reading something like this when I was in 3rd grade!

Purposes for Enrichment: It shows how imagination can be used in poetry and that it can talk about silly and outrageous things.

Curricular Purposes: For a poetry unit, this book could be inspiration before they write rhyming/lyrical poetry of their own.

[Laren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This ia a book of cute little rhymes targeted at kids. The illustrations make the poems even more interesting. Don't miss the mini-biographies of the authors at the end of the book, because they are also humorous.

[Shaylee Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a anthology of poems for children. I though it was really well put together and well thought through. All of the poems had very good imagery for children to picture and enjoy!

[Dacee Stephens · Rating 3 out of 5]

This poetry book has really fun books in them! They are about random events and so funny. Kids would love this book.

[Jodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laughed out loud at some of the poems - looked for excuses to read them to kids!

[Karibass84gmail.Com · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny but she'll appreciate it better when she's more mature. To be borrowed again when she's 4 or 5.