Monday, October 04, 2010

Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Gross Jr. Edition

What's the grossest thing that's ever happened to me? Well, I've had pets, so I've done my share of gross clean-ups of various yuck that comes out of the front and back ends of dogs and cats. BLECH! I kept Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches as classroom pets for a lot of years. I think they are pretty cool critters, but for lots of people they were really high up on the scale of grossness. EEK! When I worked at the swimming pool, it became routine practice after giving swimming lessons to the littlest kids to skim giant snot-wads out of the water (with no protective gloves) and fling them onto the sidewalk to dry up and blow away. (Better that, than to swim into them!) YUCK! Come to think of it, being a teacher has given me plenty of gross experiences. The grossest was probably when I looked down at a student's head and saw it crawling with lice. GROSS! My most recent gross experience was last Friday when a surgeon cut four little slits in my belly, blew me up like a balloon through one, stuck a light and a camera in through a couple others, and reached in and--snip-snip--cut my gallbladder free and dragged it out through one of the holes. EWWW! I'm starting to think I could have been a writer or a consultant for Chronicle Books' newest Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook:
The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Gross Junior Edition by David Borgenicht, Nathaniel Marunas, and Robin Epstein illustrated by Chuck Gonzales Chronicle Books, 2010 review copy provided by the publisher The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbooks have been favorites in my classroom since the first one came out. There is no doubt in my mind that this edition will be the most popular. It has boogers, farts, burps, pus, and pinkeye. It also has practical information about how to plunge a toilet, how to remove a tick (get an adult's help is the first step), and how to safely drink from the drinking fountain at school. For possible word study lessons, there is a table of barfonyms and a list of poopisms. You can learn how to say what you say after someone sneezes in seven different languages. But most of all, this book is just good GROSS fun! Here's an example:
The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: GROSS Junior Edition is on tour. For further examples of icky wonderfulness, a chance to win a copy of the book, and more, check out these blogs: Sept. 27: Brimful Curiosities Sept. 29: Bookmarkable Sept. 30: Dad of Divas Oct. 1: Stiletto Storytime Oct. 2: A Sea of Books Oct. 3: Great Kid Books Oct. 4: A Year of Reading -- YOU ARE HERE! Oct. 5: The Children’s Book Review Oct. 6: 5 Minutes for Books Oct. 7: Two Writing Teachers Oct. 8: Mocha Dad
What's the grossest thing that ever happened to you? Share your story in the comments!

3 comments:

  1. My grossest thing involves a baby and diarrhea and I don't even want to tell you what happened.

    Glad that your surgery was successful! It might have been gross, but it's also very cool that they can do that!

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  2. I had something gross happen to me today. I'm a fairly new dog owner, and I went out to clean up after my dog, and reward him with a treat. He was jumping for the treat, when he bit into the bag of you know...That grossed me out!

    Also related to poop-->My daughter has been saying "poop" over and over these days, and laughing in fits thinking about different scenarios: "What if ________ was covered in poop?" Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha I just put a couple of poop books on hold at the library, so she can get this poop-stuff out of her system, no pun intended! ; )

    Very impressed that your posting so soon after surgery! Be well.

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  3. Grossest thing ever... definitely baby related and not postable :) I loved meeting a Madagascar hissing cockroach during a library program my colleague Anne set up a few years ago. Incredible.

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