If the perfect child you have in mind is a perfect angel, then you would do better to pick out another book. This one is for children who bang doors, scrape knees, climb trees, and make muddy footprints on the clean kitchen floor. John Ciardi's zany and good-humored poems, perfectly illustrated by Edward Gorey, will reward young readers with plenty of giggles and grins.

 

There are 64 pages in this book. This book was published 1991 by Boyds Mills Press .

John Ciardi served as poetry editor of The Saturday Review , director of Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and translator of the The Divine Comedy . He died on Easter Sunday, 1986. Edward Gorey 's Gothic vision has won him a loyal following. His own titles include The Hapless Child , The Glorious Nosebleed , and The Prune People .