The Red Ear Blows Its Nose - by Robert Schechter (Hardcover)

About the Book

The Red Ear Blows Its Nose is an illustrated poetry collection for children and others, covering thinking and the brain, identity and being a person, nature and the seasons.

Book Synopsis

The Red Ear Blows Its Nose is "a dazzling tour de force" (Kenn Nesbitt). Often hilarious, always thoughtful, this debut collection from award-winning poet Robert Schechter proves that he is "clearly one of the most accomplished poets writing for children today" (Valerie Bloom MBE). Complemented by S. Federico's charming illustrations, The Red Ear Blows Its Nose will delight both children and adults alike, and is destined to become a classic, standing alongside A Child's Garden of Verses, Now We Are Six, and Where the Sidewalk Ends on children's and library bookshelves for years to come.

PRAISE FOR THE RED EAR BLOWS ITS NOSE:

Short, punchy, and clever poems, as if Shel Silverstein and Ogden Nash had a baby. Some are only two lines long. My favorite: "When livestock salesmen cannot sleep, / do they lie in bed discounting sheep?" Wow!

-Jane Yolen, author of the How Do Dinosaurs books

What a splendid collection of poetry. Here are poems that fizz with imagination, wisdom, and an infectious exuberance at the sheer wonder of words. Beautifully crafted and terrifically funny, this is a book for children (and grown-ups) to return to again and again.

-Kate Wakeling, winner, 2017 CLiPPA (UK)

You'll feel like a "cool in-the-know one" when you read Robert Schechter's clever collection of poems. This book will open your mind up to a world where foxes cartwheel through trombones, a horse might choose to moo, and you can dive into a lake filled with yellow puffs of popcorn. Children who are reading (and thinking) beyond their age level will love it; you will, too. If you're a fan of John Ciardi and Richard Wilbur and X. J. Kennedy, or Jack Prelutsky and J. Patrick Lewis and Kenn Nesbitt, you'll want to add Robert Schechter to your list of favorite poets!

-Janet Wong, winner of the 2021 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children

The Red Ear Blows Its Nose is a dazzling tour de force of ingenious poems that sparkle with Schechter's witty, wonderful wordplay. Read this book. Your brain will thank you. Mine did.

-Kenn Nesbitt, former Children's Poet Laureate (2013-15)

Robert Schechter's poems sing with irrepressible joy. His humor, wit, and verbal dexterity make The Red Ear Blows Its Nose a book that both children and adults will want to read over and over and over again. He is clearly one of the most accomplished poets writing for children today.

-Valerie Bloom MBE, winner, 2022 CLiPPA (UK)

Schechter's The Red Ear Blows Its Nose is a masterful collection from a masterful poet. Not only does every poem take you somewhere new, spinning ideas and jokes and thoughts and dreams and facts and observations on the tip of its finger like a Harlem Globetrotter at a showing-off convention, but it does so with such surefootedness, such deft rhythm and rhyme, that the poems are joys to read aloud. They sing themselves out of your mouth and will stick in the minds of kids and grown-ups everywhere they get heard. Schechter, it seems to me, is way up there with the great American kids' poets, a real Shel Silverstein for today's generation.

-A. F. Harrold

It's entertaining-sometimes hilarious, sometimes beautiful, always thought-provoking-and nothing short of brilliant.

-Diana Murray, author of City Shapes, Summer Color! and the Unicorn Day series

Review Quotes

In this volume of mostly rhyming poetry, Schechter celebrates the power of a unique perspective through playful poems that delight in turning things topsy-turvy. . . . [T]he plethora of poems dazzle in their variety. . . . For child readers, these poems may spark big reflections on how amazingly quirky the world is and how elastic language can be. . . . Schechter's language and rhyme schemes range from simple to tongue-twistingly complex. Children and adults alike will enjoy bouncing through the vivacious rhythms and the breadth of surprising, marvelous ideas. These are for reading out loud, to laugh at, to muse on, and to grow up with.

- School Library Journal, Starred Review, January 1, 2023

Schechter contemplates the sun, the moon, his nose, and other prominent subjects in this wide-ranging debut collection. Showing masterful command of metrics and rhyme, the poet launches observations both playful and reflective [and] dishes up plenty of outright crowd pleasers. . . . Smells like a winner.

- Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review, January 15, 2023

Though the title of Schechter's first poetry collection may conjure associations with the Jack Prelutsky brand and all its fun absurdities-and while this book's general format mirrors that, as well-you may find something a bit different here. The playfulness is certainly still present, as it should be, but for the most part, Schechter's poetry is grounded in reality, and the silly conceits are always rooted in a second, more meaningful layer. . . . All in all, a great classroom resource, as well as an entertaining and illuminating collection.

- Ronny Khuri, Booklist, Starred Review, March 1, 2023

Silly and serious, thoughtful and joyful, the poems on these pages are all ages. Covering the seasons, words, nature, body parts and doing nothing, the style is a mix of classic poets with a modern twist.

- Jeanette, Staff Pick, Northshire Bookstore, VT

Seriously funny with a hint of "hey! This might be something to think about.

- Cannonballread, 10.25.2022

A very readable, collection of verse, that loves word play, absurdities and the old nonsense poem way of thinking, but seems to add something more....strongly sustained, all-ages-friendly rhyme....the mind boggles as to how any sequels are going to be nearly as stuffed with goodies as this collection. There is a lot of work here, with some brilliantly restrictive rhyming schemes in play.

- Theediscerning, Edelweiss / Goodreads, 11.16.2022

If you've got any "littles" in your life, The Red Ear Blows Its Nose is the perfect gift book to preorder for next year's National Poetry Month. Published by Word Galaxy Press, an imprint of the well-respected Able Muse Press, The Red Ear Blows Its Nose dishes out hilarity, wit, wordplay, and wisdom in a playfully illustrated collection of poems "for children and others.

- NewPagesBlog.com, 10.14.2022

Kids' book pure poetry: Witty pages filled with joy will even hook adults; Official age range is 7-12, but "number could be extended indefinitely"

- The Citizen, (South African newspaper) 11.3.2022