I Don't Want to Clean My Room: A Mess of Poems About Chores

by Hope Vestergaard, Carol Koeller (Illustrator)

Kids come up with all kinds of excuses for not doing their chores. But once-boring jobs will become a treat once children and parents read this book of bouncy poems. With a little imagination, doing the laundry can inspire a song and dance, and sweeping the floor can turn into a hockey match. Accompanied by playful illustrations, the sixteen poems in this book reveal that even the most mundane activities can be an opportunity for fun and family bonding.

Genres: Poetry, Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

First published March 15, 2007

About the author

Hope Vestergaard, a former early childhood teacher, is the author of several books for children. She lives with her husband and two sons, as well as cows, horses, pigs, and dogs, on a small farm outside of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Reviews

[Tawanda]

I Don't Want to Clean My Room is a book for the juvenille audience in the intermediate age range. It is a book of 16 poems about chores. The book talks about chores and how children aren't happy about doing them. But they learn that with a little creativity chores like doing the laundry, washing the dishes, cleaning the table etc... can be a bonding experience for memembers of the family as well as a fun experience for them. After reading this book I think children will feel differently about doing household chores. I rated the book as I did because I think it could be a very useful source in getting children who don't enjoy or want to do their chores to do them. It makes chores look and seem very enjoyable. Pictures illustrate children happy doing chores. They are smiling, laughing, bouncing off the beds, making bubbles with the dish detergent, snuggling with the towels that are fresh out the dryer etc..Although some of the chores took somewhat longer to complete it allowed many family bonding moments. I am going to keep this one in my own personal library for my children to reference when they feel that they don't want to do their chores.

[Bridget Cabbiness]

“I Don’t Want to Clean my room” is a book of poems about chores intended for the primary age group, ages five to eight. The book consist of sixteen poems about chores and cleaning throughout the whole house and in most of the poems makes them look fun. I gave this book two stars because most of the poems in my opinion were not overly clever although the effort was there. The illustrations on the other hand, are very bright and playful, mostly showing children having fun while cleaning different parts of the house as their chores. I think this would be a good book to read out loud to younger readers because the pictures alone would keep their attention. Rhyming in some of the poems is something else that may keep the younger readers attention as well. I feel like the poems are trying harder to motivate kids to clean, rather then being clever and cute, which I feel children would find more appealing. Some parents might be able to use this book at home when it is time to clean though by picking a favorite poem, reciting it before the children are about to clean up as their own rendition of a clean up song. Overall I think the poems could have been better, but it’s not a terrible book and I still think the younger reader may enjoy it.

[Mackenzie W]

I was really intrigued by the idea of poems about hating chores. I was fairly disappointed by this book. The book follows seemingly conventional rhyming style, and that was exactly the kind of thing I didn't enjoy as a child. The illustrations are bright and lively however and kids could most likely connect with the complaints in this book.