A Collection of Quirky Poems

This is a collection of 18 illustrated poems featuring magical moments and fantastical creatures for you to enjoy. Poetry can be a fun way to tell stories, and in this book, we wanted to craft a set of poems that would be both fun to read and bring a little magic into everyday life experiences.

Many of these poems were inspired by experiences from our own lives and stories that we enjoyed as children. The alarm clock that stars in “Ring, Ring”, for instance, was modeled off an alarm clock that our mother gave me when I was interning at a science museum in Taiwan. Mom thought it was cute. I thought it was the most obnoxious alarm clock ever, and I lived in fear of being shocked awake by it every morning.

Alaena’s poem “Cracked” harkens back to the superstition about breaking a mirror being bad luck. My poem “Beauty Contest” draws from an old Chinese folktale that we liked when we were little, and her piece “My Neighbor the Squirrel” dramatizes our father’s yearly battle with the squirrels in our backyard.

You’ll find these poems and others in this collection.