really short stories

THE BIG FAT COW THAT GOES KAPOW! is a collection of ten VERY short stories (Feiwel and Friends 2010) by Andy Griffiths with illustrations by Terry Denton. Griffiths, for those who do not know the name, is the author of THE DAY MY BUTT WENT PSYCHO, TRULY DISGUSTING THINGS, and other irreverent books perfect for reluctant tween readers. Moles, exploding cows, and other icky stuff form the basis for stories in rhyme, many 2-3 pages long (and with HUGE illustrations to boot). It might be interesting to use these as the beginning of a short story ladder with HALF MINUTE HORRORS and then moving up to gradually longer short stories before bombarding kids with stories like Man Without a Country and Most Dangerous Game that exceed what I think is allowable for a "short" story and require lots more reading stamina. Segue from these to Gallo's collection including SIXTEEN, VISIONS, WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF, TIME CAPSULE and others. Add to the mix Cart and Howe and others who have edited collections, some of them themed. Or, for another direction, use this as a starting point for funny poems including of course Silverstein and Prelutsky, Lobel's PIGERICKS, some J. Patrick Lewis, and a soupcon of X. J. Kennedy. <383>