How and when did you happen to begin writing poetry?

I started writing poetry around 1988 or ’89. At that time, I was visiting schools to test poems for an anthology of funny poems I was working towards. Although, I had no prior experience writing poetry, I thought it might be fun to test some of my own poems along with poems by Shel Silverstein, Judith Viorst, Jack Prelutsky, Jeff Moss and other famous children’s poets. I found out fairly quickly that it wasn’t easy to write poetry that kids liked, as well as some of the best poems written by the best poets. I’m not embarrassed to report that none of my poems were included in the first edition of Kids Pick the Funniest Poems (a book that became the #3 seller in the category soon after it was published—and has sold more than 500,000 copies altogether). I should point out that as I became more adept at writing poetry, I added some of my own poems to this anthology.

I’m happy to report that I didn’t give up. I had much better luck on writing my first anthology of nursery rhymes featuring Mother Goose’s most famous characters. I learned how to write poetry by working on four-line or eight-line nursery rhymes featuring new adventures of, say, Mary, Jack & Jill, Yankee Doodle, and the rest of the gang. Those poems had a simple story and a simple rhythm & rhyme pattern. Many of them, had tunes that went with them which I’d hum while writing the nursery rhymes. (I now take my guitar with me when I visit schools—so I can play tunes which can help them write a variety of poems.) My first book of nursery rhymes was called The New Adventures of Mother Goose, which was published in 1993. It became a New York Times Children’s Poetry Bestseller. (Now we publish it under a new name, Mary Had a Little Jam, which has sold almost 300,000 copies.)


Why did you choose to write poetry for children?

I remember the day I was reading a book of poetry to my children: Dana (5) and Doug (8). As I was reading “For Sale” by Shel Silverstein, Doug (who didn’t like reading) grabbed the book and said, “I have to read that poem.” (The poem is about selling a sister for “a dollar, a nickel, a penny”—in short, price is no object, the point is to get rid of the sister.) After he had read the poem, in a taunting manner, Dana said she wanted to read the poem, too. She didn’t actually know how to read, but she picked up the book and recited the first few lines in an altered manner: “One brother for sale/ one brother for sale/one prying and spying older brother for sale.” That’s the day I realized that the right poems had the power to inspire kids who didn’t like to read and kids who couldn’t read to read. Ever since that day I have made it my goal to find (or write) poems that kids would want to read.


As I found or wrote new poems, I hit on the idea of testing them on kids in school to see how well the students liked them. (I was looking for poems that kids liked “a lot.”) I noticed that kids only liked about 10% or less of the poems by the most popular poets “a lot.” This caused me to realize that the other 90% of the poems in these books were “nice” or “OK,” but not the kind of “grabbers” that kids would give anything to be able to read. This raised the goals of my search; I was looking for poems that were comparable to “Sick” by Shel Silverstein or “Homework, Oh Homework,” by Jack Prelutsky in terms of their appeal to kids.


Are there any poets that have inspired you?

Fact is, there weren’t a whole lot of poems as appealing as “Sick” by Shel Silverstein or “Homework, Oh Homework,” by Jack Prelutsky to be found in poetry collections and anthologies in bookstores or libraries, though I searched far and wide. (For example, I searched through poetry books from the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.) I realized that if I wanted to get enough poems to fill up my first anthology (and my second and third and forth anthologies), I’d have to quickly improve my own poetry writing—and find new poets who “got it.” The best poets when I started looking for appealing children’s poems were:

Shel Silverstein, Jack Prelutsky, Jeffrey Moss, and Judith Viorst. When I tested their poems (and found out how short the list of poems they’d written that kids “liked a lot”) I tried to figure out what elements in kids favorite poems caused them to be so well liked. I used that information to create new poems that kids would like. For example, I learned that there were certain words (“underpants,” “toilet”) that would cause a poem to test well. So, I adjusted the scores those poems received downward—in an attempt to correct for the effect of those specific words. Through that process, I learned which themes appealed to kids and which poetry techniques appealed to kids. Needless to say, my own poems began scoring extremely well in poetry tests. And, I was able to find some promising new poets, as well, through this process.



Where do you get your ideas for your poems?

Initially, a lot of the ideas I used in poems came from my own childhood memories and from my experience as a parent. Now that my children have grown, I have grandchildren. Unfortunately, they live in Sweden—so I don’t have the kind of exposure to them that would provide me with fresh ideas daily. Instead, I get lots of ideas from my visits to schools (about 25 to 45 times a year). I also get ideas from books I read (including children’s poetry books or story books), TV shows, movies, and radio commercials. I always keep a scrap of paper with me to record funny or memorable ideas. Believe it or not, I write a lot of poems when I’m on a plane or in a car flying/driving to a school for a visit. I’ve got plenty of time to think about kids and open my mind to ideas. I say (or sing) the words that pop into my head out loud. Then when I come to stop lights or the school parking lot, I jot down the best ideas/words on the back of my itinerary so I can recall them the next time I sit down at my computer.


Which of your own books are your favorites and why?

My favorite books are the three song books: Oh My Darling, Porcupine, I’ve Been Burping in the Classroom, and Tinkle, Tinkle, Little Tot. Reason: I learned how to write poetry by writing “fractured” nursery rhymes, many of which can be sung to familiar tunes like “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” and “Yankee Doodle.” I got into the habit of humming a tune when I wrote the new rhymes. When I moved onto longer and more complex poems, I continued to hum familiar tunes (like “Oh Suzanna” or “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” or “On Top of Spaghetti”). So, I could sing them or recite them—depending on how I wanted to present them. When I decided to create song books, I simply called the poems “songs” and then in some cases added a chorus. When I visit schools, kids LOVE it when I sing my songs. They usually sing along and laugh several times to songs like “Bring Back My Sister to Me” and “This Hand is My Hand.”



How many schools do you think you have performed at?

I believe I’ve visited more than 500 schools. ( I figure about 25 to 45 schools a year for about 20 years or so.)


Describe an average day in the life of Bruce Lansky:

I doubt this is a response you imagined—there are two parts to what I do:

1) In my role as author and editor of children’s poetry books I visit schools, speak and exhibit at teacher conferences, visit bookstores, collect ideas for new poems, write new poems. When I’m working on a poetry book, I try to spend some time every day writing new poems. When I don’t have a deadline for a poetry book,

I collect ideas for poems as they pop into my head and write them up when I get to a computer (sometimes in the office and sometimes at home).


2) You may not know I have a “day job”: I’m the publisher at Meadowbrook Press, a publishing company that produces books for children and books for parents. In addition to humorous poetry books, we also publish baby-name books, baby-food cookbooks, pregnancy guides, baby-care books, creative activities for children, and the like. My roles include editing books, designing book covers, obtaining publicity for books, and even selling books. So, when I’m not on the road visiting schools or teacher conferences, I’m working as a publisher both on my own poetry books and on a wide range of other books. (It may interest you to know that I also create baby name books.) Many days, my publishing work leads me to edit, design, publicize or sell my poetry books.


Comment: "I thoroughly enjoy my work, whether it’s writing new poems, teaching kids how to write poems, promoting my poetry books in bookstores, or my work in editing, designing, promoting, and selling other books we publish. I think I’m very lucky to enjoy my work so much—which is why I don’t spend much time thinking about retirement."



Do you have any suggestions for those who may be considering a career as a children’s author?

Last night, I served as judge for a poetry contest held at a local Barnes & Noble bookstore. It was very difficult to pick the top three poems from the batch of submissions written by elementary and middle-school students. I noticed that a number of the contestants mumbled or swallowed their words as they read their poems. Either they don’t watch “American Idol” or don’t realize that the way they read their poem affects the way their poem sounds and comes across to others. I’m guessing that students who dream of becoming a poet have no idea that many poets earn more of a living from performing their poems (e.g., at schools or conferences) than they do for writing them in book form. So, being an excellent poetry presenter can be as important (or more important) to the success of a poem than the words alone. Based on that information, my advice to students interested in becoming poets is to work up the courage to show and/or recite poems you’ve written to as many people as possible. To make a living as a poet, it’s important to get the word out about your poetry and to perform your poetry well.



What are you working on next?

My next book is going to be an anthology of “giggle poetry” that is fun to read out loud. The poems will be packaged with a DVD which includes poems read by the poets (complete with funny sound effects.)


Before we go could you share one of your poems with us?

When I visit schools kids often ask me what my favorite poem is. I don’t really have a “favorite,” but I usually recite a poem which I’m fairly sure will make the question-asker laugh:



My Brother’s Bear



My baby brother has a bear...
which travels with him everywhere.
He never let’s it out of sight.
And, when he sleeps he hugs it tight.
And when my brother’s diaper smells,
the name of the bear is what he yells—
which is a clever thing to do,
because my brother calls it Pooh.

-Bruce Lansky



Copyright 2002 by Bruce Lansky, reprinted from Funny Little Poems for Funny Little People with permission of it’s publisher, Meadowbrook Press.



As it happens, I remember where I was when I wrote this poem—I was rollerblading around a beautiful path through the woods. Sometimes poems pop into my head when I’m driving, swimming laps, running, walking—doing repetitive activities. I suppose it may have the effect of relaxing the mind and giving the brain a chance to do some neural preservation.


How can teachers contact you for a school visit?

I suggest that teachers interested in inviting me to visit their school should first visit GigglePoetry.com , one of the most popular websites featuring funny poems for kids. There they’ll find hundreds of funny poems (by me and other “Giggle Poets”) as well as poetry lessons and poetry activities (such as “poetry theater”). They can get a very good idea about the kind of poems I write and perform when I visit schools. More specifically, the poetry activities and poetry theater pages illustrate the kinds of interactive activities I use in my assembly programs. And the poetry lessons they’ll find on the website are the kind of lessons I’m likely to use when I conduct poetry workshops for their students. Next, they should visit AuthorsInSchools.com to learn more about how I structure my presentations, how teachers and students at schools I’ve visited have rated my presentations, plus information about cost and logistics.

Bruce’s newest poetry book is What I Did on My Summer Vacation ($8.95; Meadowbrook Press – came out March 3, 2009.

Purchase What I did on My Summer Vacation and other books written by Bruce Lansky from

Other books by Bruce Lansky

Rose DesRochers is the founder of Today's Writing Community, a supportive online writing community for men and women over 18. Rose is also the founder of Blogger Talk Blog Community, a friendly fast growing blogging portal, offering bloggers support, advice, tools, tips and information about blogs and blogging. Visit her new pink blog at mspink.net