Cockroach Soup and Other Poems for Kids Paperback – December 21, 2025

Step into a world where animals talk in rhymes, spiders ponder philosophy, and soup is never what it seems. In this curious collection of nonsense poetry, you'll meet a monkey obsessed with yellow pants, a centipede with too many bleeding feet, and a lion whose royal dreams are nibbled away by mice. And just when you think it can't get any stranger, someone's serving glue soup and cockroach soup for lunch. Playful, clever, and just a little bit unsettling, these poems stir the imagination and tickle the darker corners of the mind. Perfect for readers who love Edward Lear, Hilaire Belloc, and all things delightfully peculiar. With original illustrations by Nadia.About the Author: Nina Kossman has authored ten books for grown-ups. This is her second book for kids. Her first book for children was "Behind the Border," a memoir of growing up behind the Iron Curtain, i.e., in the Soviet Union. Her other ten books include four volumes of poetry (two in English and two in Russian), two volumes of short prose in Russian and one in English, a memoir, an anthology she edited for Oxford University Press, two volumes of translations of Marina Tsvetaeva's poetry, and a novel. Her English-language work has appeared in over ninety magazines and anthologies and has been translated into twelve languages. Her plays have been produced in the US, the UK, and Australia. Her work in her native language, Russian, was published in Russian-language literary magazines. She received grants from the Onassis Foundation, the Foundation for Hellenic Culture, a NEA fellowship, and the UNESCO/PEN Short Story Award. She lives in New York. Read more