The Dog's Just Been Sick in the Honda

Colin Thompson (author)

Peter Viska (illustrator)

Hodder Children's, Australia: October 2003

ISBN: 9780733617891 

Genres: humour, poetry

'The dog's just been sick in the Honda/ And my dad says he's phoning the vet's/ And if he lives to a hundred and fifty/ We're not having any more pets.' (p7) Thompson is back again with another collection of warped and wild poems, this time about animals. You might have to broaden your definition of the word 'pet' and tolerate a similarly anarchic sense of humour to that which produced 101 Uses for a Dead Cat but trust me, your children will love this book and so will you.

The sensitive souls of UK publishers were apparently so concerned about damaging the delicate sensibilities of English children that they banished five poems from their edition of the book. See  this link for the ones they omitted and to get a taste of the belly laughs to come once you obtain your Australian copy. While rhyming can be over-rated, it's often an essential ingredient in this kind of comical verse and Thompson's ability to create galloping rhymes without uncomfortable rearrangement of word order makes reading aloud almost compulsory.

Be warned: contains rolling-around-on-the-floor-laughing-absolutely-have-to-share-it-with-others type verse.