A brand new book of LOL poetry by Derek Taylor Kent

Hysterical Rhymes and How You Can Rhyme Too is a collection of over 100 poems by award-winning, best-selling author, Derek Taylor Kent. Not only that, along the way, Derek teaches young readers how they can write their own poetry as well! There are fun, interactive lessons about poetic forms, rhyme schemes, rhythm and meter, how to come up with idea, and how to analyze and understand poetry.

The illustrations by beloved artist, writer, and illustrator Travis Hanson compliment and add even more humor to each poem. See examples from the book below!

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By clicking play below.

Here are some excerpts from the book!

**WIENER AND SAUSAGE**
A wiener and sausage were keener
To settle whose body was leaner.
When tallies came in,
Wiener said with a grin,
“I was destined to win – I’m a wiener!”

**NARWHAL**
I know all about the narwhal.
There’s a poster pinned on our-wall.
They’re the unicorns of the sea
And their horn is sensory.
Other whales think they’re the oddball.
They’re just jealous of that rod, y’all!

**FANCY MOSQUITO**
There once was a fancy mosquito,
Who dressed up to dine in tuxedo.
“I’m the king of the night!”
He proclaims with each bite,
“So why would I dine incognito?”

**WONDERFULLY WEIRD**

My body is going through changes.
That’s normal, but mine seem the strangest.
I grew one giant ear
And my eyelids turned clear
And I think I have extra phalanges.

My knees became gnarled and knotty.
My face became dimpled and dotty.
I asked my mom why
Did I sprout a third eye?
She said, “Soon you’ll grow into your body.”

But nothing could stop me from growing.
And mutations showed no sign of slowing.
I asked my dad, “Pop,
Will this stuff ever stop?”
He said, “Never, now get back to mowing.”

But it turned out my parents were right.
My body fit well overnight.
I am what I am,
But I sure ain’t no sham.
I’m a wonderfully weird-looking sight!

Here’s a sample of an educational section of the book!

How Do I Rhyme?

Rhyming is one of the classic characteristics of poetry. Some poems are written in what’s called free verse, which does not rhyme, but most poems rhyme in one way or another.

Before you start writing a poem, or at least soon after you get started, it’s important to figure out what your rhyme scheme is going to be.

The poem you just read, THE HAIRIEST BEAST is written in rhyming couplets. That’s where two lines rhyme with one another in succession.

What is the hairiest beast of them all?

Is the beast big or is the beast small?

Does it stomp through the forest and hide in a cave?

Or lurch through the desert in need of a shave?

You can describe it as AA, BB, CC, DD etc. A is one type of rhyme: all and small. B is the next rhyme cave and shave.

THERE’S A DOG IN MY LAP had a different rhyme scheme: AABCCB / DDFGGF

The / indicates a new stanza. A stanza in poetry is like a paragraph in a book. Basically, it’s a chunk of text that’s meant to go together and convey one idea before moving on to the next. Here’s the first stanza for There’s a Dog in My Lap with the rhyme scheme written next to it.

A There’s a dog in my lap

A For that’s where he must nap,

B Even though there’s a bed that I bought him.

C It’s just the right size

C But the pup never tries!

B On my thighs is the one place you’ll spot him.

Pretty easy, right?

Besides rhyming couplets, another common rhyme is alternate rhymes that look like ABAB / CDCD. You’ll find a lot of those coming up. You can also have internal rhymes where words within a line rhyme with each other. You can have enclosed rhymes where the rhymes work from the outside in! Like this: ABCDDCBA.

There’s lots of room for creativity when coming up with rhyme schemes, and in this book, you’ll find lots of different types of them. Most of them are classic ones that I like best, but sometimes I like to experiment and try different combinations. When I come up with a weird scheme like AABA CCBC, I wonder if they’ve ever been done before!

There are also different kinds of rhymes. You can have an exact rhyme like: ham, jam, tram, ma’am, ram.

But you can also use near rhymes, such as ham and plan, castle and dazzle, and one you’re about to read in an upcoming poem, butchery and cookery. I checked and I don’t think those words have ever rhymed in a poem before! In near rhymes, usually just the ending vowel sounds rhymes, but in exact rhymes, the vowel and consonant sounds rhyme.

I will often try to use an exact rhyme in my poems, but sometimes the right rhyme just doesn’t exist for what I need to say and a near rhyme works best. The sheer creativity of a near rhyme can often make it amusing. When I want to rhyme a really tough word like butchery, there just aren’t a lot of options, but that’s when I enjoy the challenge of poetry the most!

It doesn’t even have to be just one word rhyming with one word. You can have your first word be fortress and you rhyme it with court dress. You can even take a really long word like Disneyland and rhyme it with his flea band.

While there is absolutely nothing wrong with writing a lot of simple rhymes in a poem, the more you write, the more those simple rhymes like day and way will feel too easy and you’ll want the challenge of more complex rhymes, perhaps ones that have never been done before.

As you read this book, see if you start to notice any rhymes you may not have ever seen. I encourage you to write down your favorites. At the end of the book, I’ll give you a fun challenge for them.

My wife and I hope you have fun reading the book and writing your poetry! Were you inspired to write some of your own already? Email them to us at info@WhimsicalWorldBooks.com and we may publish them below so your poem can get read by our fans and maybe become super famous!