I Like it Here at School

by Jack Prelutsky

26 funny poems about school.

Genres: Poetry, Childrens, School, Picture Books, Nonfiction, Realistic Fiction

32 pages

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Jack Prelutsky is an American poet. He attended New York public schools, and later the High School of Music and Art and Hunter College. Prelutsky, who has also worked as a busboy, furniture mover, folk singer, and cab driver, claims that he hated poetry in grade school because of the way it was taught. He is the author of more than 30 poetry collections including Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep< and A Pizza the Size of the Sun. He has also compiled countless children's anthologies comprised of poems of others'. Jack Prelutsky was married to Von Tre Venefue, a woman he had met in France. They divorced in 1995, but Jack remarried. He currently lives in Washington state with his wife, Carolyn. He befriended a gay poet named Espiritu Salamanca in 1997 and both now work together in writing poems and stories for children and adults alike.

Reviews

[Kayla Rutz]

I loved this collection of poems by Jack Prelutsky. This book would be a great way to introduce poetry to children because its simple, engaging, and relatable. Students could learn about stanzas, rhyme schemes, and figurative language from studying this book. The illustrator knew that students would be intrigued by these illustrations. This book could also inspire students to become authors of their own poems. Students will be excited about poetry when they find this humorous book with a school theme.

[Pamela Delgado Acosta]

This small poem book lets the reader into a typical day in school from the very beginning till the end when the bell rings. I thought it was really fun to read and brought back on how I use to start my days in Elementary. I remember when my teacher used to say don't let your dog eat your homework, in this case the author says "he would have done it if it wasn't for the rain and the splinter on his finger." I would recommend this book to teachers to have in their classroom libraries for their students to read because some students really feel all of these things even the monster inside the desk.

[Lori C]

Genre: Children's Poetry
Ages: K-6th

I love how this book is organized. It starts with poems about riding the bus and getting to school, moves to homework problems, followed by lunch and recess, and finishes with poems about friends and going home. It's an effective way to tell a story through poetry. The collection of poems are varied but are mostly humorous and would definitely appeal to children. Even though some of the poetry may be beyond the understanding of younger students, they will still find some of it funny. Overall, it's a great book for entertainment and for teaching a variety of literary devices.

[Cheryl]

Not too bad for the intended audience. Of course the verses were light, usually emphasizing rhyme and meter over sense or depth. I do want to see if Charles Ghigna has written anything else interesting, though....

[Savanna Kandiko]

I like how the poems are in a chronological order. The first poems are about racing to the bus and the last poems are about school getting out. I think this makes the poems more organized and makes the collection read almost as one story.

[Vanessa]

I love reading these poems. They are so funny and simple. They take me back to my childhood and to my school days pre high school. Every once in a while, I will pick it up. It lifts my spirit and gives me a good laugh.

[Stephanie Littig]

Another cute poetry book for students in elementary school. These poems are silly too, like the last book. My favorites were “Book Report”, and “Sharing.” These books are fun to read, and 3ven at 47, I get a good chuckle at these poems!

[Sarena Delgado]

Found an old book from my childhood full of poems while looking through an old box of stuff. Star Wars, Dr. Seuss, Pirates, science, geology, history and cat obsessions seemed to dominate my childhood literature LOL. Reread for fun, makes a lot of sense looking back.

[Heather]

I ordered from Scholastic and received a class set of these books. The kids loved them.

[Laura Renick-Butera]

for Goodreads repository

[Miranda Summerset]

4/5 STARS! Kids will enjoy this easy collection of poems about the perils of school & who can't relate to bad school lunches? Lol we all remember those days.

[Katie Foster]

This book had 26 poems almost all about things that happen during a school day. Although it says it's by Jack Prelutsky, there are actually a lot of other poets in the book as well. The poems are all short, but they were so funny that they made me want to keep reading. There's even poems that don't rhyme (Book Report, Look in a Book). I think those are beneficial for kids to read so that they get exposure to poems that don't rhyme, which would make for good mini lessons. Plus, the figurative language is so appropriate to children! There are narrative poems, free verse, and concrete poems. This book has a variety of different types of poems and I highly recommend it for the classroom to use to study the different kinds of poetry.

[Tracy Strahsburg]

This book “collected and introduced” by Jack Prelutsky has a nice selection of school themed poems. None of the poems in this book are highly memorable (at least by my personal standards) and are not as “giggle inducing” as many of Jack Prelutsky’s poems are. The pictures in this book are very simplistic and add little effect to the meaning of the poem it adorns. I would not hesitate to put this book in my classroom library (as more books is always an amazing thing) but it is not a book that I would highly recommend to my students or use for much of a study on poetry.

[Mallory]

This is a collection of poems all about school! Topics of poems include; homework, sharing, Gym class, the cafeteria, and more. Most are funny and entertaining to read out loud to intermediate grades due to different school references that younger kids may not understand. These poems could be used in a variety of ways! For the first week of school different poems could be read depending on what rules you want to focus on. Or, for a literacy lesson as one poem talks about their, there, and they're. Or poems could be read out loud throughout the school year!

[Kimberly Hansen]

This book is a collection of small poems about school and the poems begin at getting ready for school and then are about the school day up until the bell rings. All of the poems are funny but may be for older kids who understand some geography (one of the poems is about geography). This small collection was great and funny.

[Amanda]

We got this book in my third grade class. We read it through out the year and I love it! I still have it accually and the poems in it are still quite funny. I think all younger kids (2-4 grade) would love this book to pieces, and older kids might like it as well.

[Jennifer]

Visualizing
“Foul Shot,” by Edwin A. Hoey
“School Lunch,” by Douglas Florian
“Why My Homework is Missing,” by Douglas Florian
“Recess,” by Timothy Tocher
“The Classroom Globe,” by Rebecca Kai Dotlich

[Theresa]

I Like It Here At School
Prelutsky, Jack
jack prelutsky's poems about school

[Carol Mcgloshen]

A short collection of poems that students could relate to about school. Introduces children to fun poems in a variety of formats

[Christina]

Sensational and made me remember my early childhood with rhymes and poetry. Filled with great funny and sassy short poems that you can sing and share with others.

[Tim Watts]

This is a good collection of poems about starting school at a young age. Perfect to read with your kid the night or week before they go to school.

[Laura]

Humorous collection of poems by Jack Prelutsky and others. Some of them are cute, some of them are silly. All of them will be enjoyed by children, educators and parents.

[Kay Kay]

A great little collection of poems