Jack Prelutsky



Jack Prelutsky (born September 8, 1940) is an American writer of children's poetry.

Youth
Jack Prelutsky was born on September 8, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York to Charles, an electrician, and Dorothea, a homemaker. While he was still a baby, a fire burned his family's apartment and he was saved by his Uncle Charlie, who was a stand up comic who played the Borscht Belt. He was poor growing up, and he said he was "...a sensitive kid in a working class neighborhood. I got beat up a lot. I was a skinny kid with a big mouth. A bad combination."

He attended local public schools in the Bronx, hated it, and was bored in class. Prelutsky claims to have hated poetry when he was younger. He stated that "sometime in elementary school I had a teacher who, in retrospect, did not like poetry herself. She was determined to inflict her views on her captives. The syllabus told her she had to recite a poem once a week. She would pick a boring poem from a boring book and read it in a boring voice, looking bored while she was doing it."

After teachers discovered he had musical talents, they suggest he attend The High School of Music & Art. While there, he was happy and was able to train his beautiful singing voice and even took part in the musicals. He graduated in 1958, and went on to Hunter College for two years. He studied philosophy, psychology, and flunked English three times before dropping out.

Before becoming a writer, he worked odd jobs including driving a cab, moving furniture, busboy, potter, woodworker, and door-to-door salesman. In the late 1960's, he was working in a bookstore in Greenwich Village and singing in coffeehouses, and while doing the latter he met Bob Dylan, became friends, and Dylan even stated that Prelutsky sounded "like a cross between Woody Guthrie and Enrico Caruso".

Prelutsky also loved to draw imaginary animals, and a friend of his encouraged him to send it to a publisher in New York. He wrote poems to go with the drawings last minute. He met with Susan Hirshman, and was amazed when they wanted his work; not the drawings that took six months to draw, but the poems which took two hours. He was 24 at the time, and the poems appeared in his first book, A Gopher in the Garden and Other Animal Poems. Hirshman told him he was a natural poet, published his book, and remained his editor until she retired 37 years later.

Personal life
Prelutsky married his wife Carolynn in 1979. They met when he was on a book tour in Albuquerque, New Mexico and she was a children's librarian who was tasked with showing him around town. He claims it was love at first sight and even asked for her hand in marriage the first day he met her. They have lived in Arizona, Boston, New York, and Olympia, Washington. They currently live in downtown Seattle and have an apartment on Bainbridge Island.

Career
Prelutsky has written more than 50 poetry collections, including Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep (1976), It's Halloween (1977), The Mean Old Mean Hyena (1978), and Something BIG Has Been Here (1990). Nilsen, A. P. and Nilsen, D.L.F. (2000). Encyclopedia of 20th-Century American Humor [Electronic version]. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press. He has also compiled numerous children's anthologies comprising poems of others.

He appeared on the popular animated television series Arthur, in the episode "I'm a Poet."

He has also set his poems to music on the audio versions of his anthologies. He often sings and plays guitar on most of them.

In 1993, "The New Kid on the Block" was made into an interactive story book by Brøderbund's Living Books series.

Recognition
In 2006, the Poetry Foundation named Prelutsky the inaugural winner of the Children’s Poet Laureate award.

His book Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems (illustrated by Carin Berger) won the 2007 Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award of the Washington State Book Awards in the Picture Book category.

Publications

 * A Gopher in the Garden and Other Animal Poems (1967) (illustrated by Robert Leydenfrost)
 * The Terrible Tiger (1970) (illustrated by Arnold Lobel)
 * Toucans Two and Other Poems (1970) (illustrated by José Aruego)
 * Circus (1974) (illustrated by Arnold Lobel)
 * Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep (1976) (illustrated by Arnold Lobel)
 * It's Halloween (1977) (illustrated by Marylin Hafner)
 * The Mean Old Mean Hyena (1978) (illustrated by Arnold Lobel)
 * The Queen of Eene (1978) (illustrated by Victoria Chess)
 * The Headless Horseman Rides Tonight: More Poems to Trouble Your Sleep (1980) (illustrated by Arnold Lobel)
 * Rolling Harvey Down the Hill (1980) (illustrated by Victoria Chess)
 * It's Christmas (1981) (illustrated by Marylin Hafner)
 * The Sheriff of Rottenshot (1982) (illustrated by Victoria Chess)
 * Kermit's Garden of Verses (1982) (illustrated by Bruce McNally)
 * The Baby Uggs are Hatching (1982) (illustrated by James Stevenson)
 * It's Thanksgiving (1982) (illustrated by Marylin Hafner)
 * Zoo Doings: Animal Poems (1983) (illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky)
 * It's Valentine's Day (1983) (illustrated by Yossi Abolafia)
 * The Random House Book of Poetry for Children (1983) (illustrated by Arnold Lobel)
 * It's Snowing! It's Snowing! (1984) (illustrated by Jeanne Titherington)
 * The New Kid on the Block (1984) (illustrated by James Stevenson)
 * Ride a Purple Pelican (1984) (illustrated by Garth Williams)
 * My Parents Think I'm Sleeping (1985) (illustrated by Yossi Abolafia)
 * Read Aloud-Rhymes for the Very Young (1986) (illustrated by Marc Brown)
 * Tyrannosaurus Was a Beast: Dinosaur Poems (1988) (illustrated by Arnold Lobel)
 * Beneath a Blue Umbrella (1990) (illustrated by Garth Williams)
 * Something BIG Has Been Here (1990) (illustrated by James Stevenson)
 * For Laughing Out Loud: Poems to Tickle Your Funnybone (1991) (illustrated by Marjorie Priceman)
 * There'll Be a Slight Delay: And Other Poems for Grown-ups (1991) (illustrated by Jack Ziegler)
 * A. Nonny Mouse Writes Again! (1993) (illustrated by Marjorie Priceman)
 * The Dragons Are Singing Tonight (1993) (illustrated by Peter Sís)
 * Monday's Troll (1996) (illustrated by Peter Sís)
 * A Pizza the Size of the Sun (1996) (illustrated by James Stevenson)
 * The Beauty of the Beast: Poems from the Animal Kingdom (1997) (illustrated by Meilo So)
 * Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! (1998) (with Dr. Seuss; illustrated by Lane Smith)
 * Dog Days: Rhymes around the Year (1999) (illustrated by Dyanna Wolcott)
 * The Gargoyle on the Roof (1999) (illustrated by Peter Sís)
 * The 20th Century Children's Poetry Treasury (1999) (illustrated by Meilo So)
 * It's Raining Pigs and Noodles (2000) (illustrated by James Stevenson)
 * Awful Ogre's Awful Day (2001) (illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky)
 * The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders (2002) (illustrated by Petra Mathers)
 * Scranimals (2002) (illustrated by Peter Sís)
 * If Not for the Cat (2004) (illustrated by Ted Rand)
 * Wild Witches' Ball (2004) (illustrated by Kelly Ashbury)
 * Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems (2006) (illustrated by Carin Berger)
 * I'm Glad I'm Me: Poems About You (2006)
 * What a Day It Was at School! (2006) (illustrated by Doug Cushman)
 * Good Sports: Rhymes about Running, Jumping, Throwing, and More (2007) (illustrated by Chris Raschka)
 * In Aunt Giraffe's Green Garden (2007) (illustrated by Petra Mathers)
 * Me I Am! (2007) (illustrated by Christine Davenier)
 * The Wizard (2007) (illustrated by Brandon Dorman)
 * Awful Ogre Running Wild (2008) (illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky)
 * My Dog May Be a Genius (2008) (illustrated by James Stevenson)
 * Be Glad Your Nose Is on Your Face and Other Poems (2008) (illustrated by Brandon Dorman)
 * Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry: How to Write a Poem (2008)
 * The Swamps of Sleethe: Stories from Beyond the Solar System (2009) (illustrated by Jimmy Pickering)
 * The Carnival of the Animals (2010) (illustrated by Mary GrandPré)
 * I've Lost My Hippopotamus (2012) (illustrated by Jackie Urbanovic)