36 fun and funny poems for kids and families

Darrell House is a singer/songwriter/author/poet residing in Ft. Myers, Florida. Happily married more than 26 years, and with 2 daughters, he maintains an extremely busy schedule, writing, performing, and parenting. Not necessarily in that order. Born and raised in the Miami Valley area of Southwest Ohio, he was singing in public by the age of six, playing guitar at age nine, and writing and performing professionally before he was fifteen. Drawn to the coffeehouse scene of the early 60’s, he never lost his affection for the acoustic sounds that, even today, are a regular part of his patio bar/restaurant performance schedule. After graduating from Middletown High School in 1969, he pursued a career in broadcasting; working at radio stations in Kentucky. Supplementing his income as a radio announcer, he entertained in small clubs wherever he lived and in 1973 left broadcasting behind to write and perform full time. Moving home to Middletown, Ohio, he proceeded to work throughout Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, finding friends and fans everywhere he played. In 1975 he moved to SE. Florida and, except for 2 summers performing on Cape Cod and in Boston, has been a mainstay on the entertainment scene ever since. He now embraces a tropical lifestyle with gusto. Picture a big man with a big white beard and a Hawaiian shirt. Think Grizzly Adams meets Key West. And you can see from the smile on his face and the sparkle in his eyes he loves to perform. In 1992, Darrell was recruited as lyricist for a children’s music project that led him in a direction he had never considered. Those songs gave him great satisfaction and the desire to create more material that would be suitable for his own two daughters. The result is the 1997 collection of 12 original songs called Underneath the Cushions on the Couch, (“Reminds me of Shel Silverstein” – Middletown Journal), a 2004 CD entitled Darrell House… Makes Me Feel Like Singing. (The songs crackle with House’s infectious energy” - School Library Journal) Both CDs are full of humorous songs that urge kids to use their imaginations and strive to achieve their dreams while embracing the joys of reading and good old fashioned family values. His most recent work is the autumn 2009 release of the Spoken Word CD collection of humorous, original poetry, Speed-b-b-b-bumps… and other poems for kids & families. A 2009 nominee for Lee County Florida’s Alliance for the Arts’ Literary Artist of the Year, plans are currently focused on the promotion and marketing of Darrell\'s music and his beautiful children\'s picture book, Miller the Green Caterpillar, (“Lyrical and uplifting” – South Florida Parenting) illustrated by the extremely talented Patti Argoff. Ms Argoff has completed artwork for Darrell’s next book, The King of Fish. Darrell is in demand for library and elementary school visits, as well as Reading Festivals, Literary Conferences and Folk Festivals. Multi-faceted, he has also performed on the HBO hit The Chris Rock Show, and Fox Sports Television used his original song about baseball’s Pete Rose, for a special Hall of Fame feature.