Who has kissed the most cobras? Eaten the most live scorpions? Sailed highest on a skateboard? Been stuck the longest in an elevator? These and 21 other vexing superlatives are the subject matter of this zany collection of verse by one of America's most well-loved poets, J. Patrick Lewis. Comic illustrations by Keith Graves make this the funniest, wackiest, rhyming-est book on the shelf.

"With a clever premise — poems about the world's greatest something or other — Lewis (A World of Wonders: Geographic Travels in Verse and Rhyme) and Graves (Frank Was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance) assemble a poetry volume sure to appeal to assiduous readers of Guinness World Record books. Regrettably, the poems themselves are not always as intriguing as the oddball records they describe. Sometimes Lewis's meter stumbles, or his grasp on a particular topic weakens, but the poems often contain a sly rhyme or an idea that will grab the target audience, as in these words about an articulate canary that begins to 'mutter, sputter/ Whenever he ate pnnnut bttttr.' Each poem lists the record associated with it; for example, 'The Tallest Roller Coaster' is prefaced with the name, location and height of the actual attraction, after which Lewis describes the sensation of riding it ('You hold your breath,/ You lose your nerve,/ You're scared to death/ At every curve'). Graves's illustrations, like the best caricatures, match the wacky tone of the poems, as in 'The Kookiest Hat' (' 'A fried-egg hat repels the rain,'/ Was what the man replied,/ 'Because, my dear, I always wear/ It on the sunny side' '). Ages 5-9. (Apr.) " Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)