"Shut Up, You're Fine: Poems for Very, Very Bad Children" by Andrew Hudgins

113 pages

The tooth fairy. Moms cleaning faces with spit. Imaginary friends. Ice cream trucks. Lesbian stepmothers. These are the things of children's books (well, except maybe that last one), and some of these poems are from kids' points of view, but despite the subtitle, this is not really children's poetry. Most of the poems are funny in a dark way, and some are downright morbid. Here are the final lines of one of my favorite poems, "Kiss Grandma Goodnight":

Pucker up and kiss them
Act just like a chum
Lie that you love them
They're what you'll become