Sad Underwear and Other Complications More Poems for Children and their Parents

Knock, knock Who's there? Someone with sad underwear. Sad underwear? How can that be? When my best friend's mad at me, Everything is sad. Even my underwear. But sad underwear is just one of the many complications a person has to deal with. There's the first day of school ("Will they let me go when I need to go to the bathroom?") and pests like Wayne ("a fellow who clogs up life's drain") and bee stings and liver for supper -- and missing your dad. This companion volume to the acclaimed If I Were in Charge of the World and Other Worries has poems for explorers and dreamers, for people who love unicorns, for people who'd rather have pets than baby sisters. Funny, poignant and always true, it examines and celebrates life with all of its perplexing complications.

Judith Viorst says that she has been writing always -- "or at least since I was seven or eight, when I composed an ode to my dead parents, both of whom were alive and well and, when they read my poem, extremely annoyed." She has written many books for children, including the acclaimed Alexander and the Terrible Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, If I Were in Charge of the World...and Other Worries, and I'll Fix Anthony as well as several books of poetry and prose for adults. She is also a contributing editor to Redbook magazine. Mrs. Viorst lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, Milton, a political writer. They have three sons -- Anthony, Nicholas, and Alexander.