X. J. Kennedy

Carry literature in your backpack as well as in your heart. With new contemporary and classic selections and an emphasis on writing, Backpack Literature will motivate you to read, think, and write about literature! You'll like the size because it easily fits into your backpack and makes taking the book to class a breeze. Backpack Literature includes a powerful range of stories, poems, and plays that will give you a chance to meet some of the world's most memorable characters. Written by two published poets, Kennedy and Gioia, this textbook is lively, accessible, and engaging. When you read literature, you learn how to see the world from another person's point of view- an ability that will benefit you in your professional and personal life.

With the help of Mozzarella Mouse, Elefantina the elephant trains hard to qualify for the Elympic ice skating team.

The best funny poems of X.J. Kennedy all combined in a collection that pleases the ear and delights the mind. Do you like to laugh? To smile? Do you like words that sing and dance? If you like one, two, or all of the above, this is the book for you. Inside these covers you'll find the best funny poems of X.J. Kennedy, all combined in a collection that pleases the ear and delights the mind. In Exploding Gravy you will meet an absolutely terrible baby-sitter and a vain witch, be introduced to several dinosaurs, told some mixed-up tales, and yes, learn all about that exploding gravy -- and that's just for starters. When Joy Allen's delicious drawings are added to Kennedy's poems they create a recipe for fun. Bet you anything that you'll be asking for seconds of Exploding Gravy.

Elephants compete in a variety of sports, such as diving, triatholon, hammer throw, and figure skating.

Continues the fantastic adventures of the twins Timothy and Verity as they attempt to rescue their half-brother and save their land from a swarm of killer bees.

A collection of limericks about Uncle Switch, an eccentric who does everything topsy-turvy.

Forty-four humorous poems which describe the behavior of some annoying children.

Presents nineteen poems, each in the voice of a creature that was present in the stable at the time of Christ's birth.

Merritt Wenner has been sent to an equine therapy program where she meets Red--a failed racehorse and a terror in the barn--and begins competitive hunter/jumper riding, finding herself drawn to the groom, Beatrice, and a rival rider, Carvin.

A collection of poems, grouped in such categories as "Growing & Dreaming," "Family," "Not So Ordinary Things," and "Birds, Beasts & Fish."

A collection of poems describing the naughty antics of Lil, who used a power mower on Mom's Persian rug, Ross, who dipped his baby sister in pea-green paint, and other fresh brats.

A collection of nonsense poems describing a variety of unlikely characters and situations.

Willie and Liberty are drifters. They break into Florida vacation homes while the owners are away, stay a while, and then move on. They have been lovers since they were teenagers, yet Liberty now senses that Willie is drifting away from her--that their search, so relentless and mysterious, is becoming increasingly dangerous.