Judith Viorst is known and loved by readers of all ages, for children's books such as Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day; nonfiction titles, including the bestseller Necessary Losses; and her collections of humorous poetry, which make perfect gifts for birthdays, Mother's Day, graduation, Christmas, Chanukah, or at any time of year.

Now Judith Viorst looks at what it's like to be (gulp) fifty.

Writing with the warmth and authenticity that have become her trademarks, Viorst once again demonstrates her uncanny ability to transform our daily realities into poems that make us laugh with recognition. Whether her subject is the decline of the body ("It's hard to be devil-may-care/When there are pleats in your derrière") or future aspirations ("Before I go, I'd like to have high cheekbones./I'd like to talk less like New Jersey, and more like Claire Bloom"), she always speaks directly to our condition. Her funny, compassionate poems shed a reassuring light on the fine art of aging, and will delight anyone who is now (or forever) fifty.

Contents

FIFTY

You Say You Want to Know How Old I Am?

You Say You Want to Know How the Children Are Doing?

Wild Thing

Exercising Options

Postmortems

Confusion

To a Middle-Aged Friend Considering Adultery with a Younger Man

Happiness

STILL FIFTY

By My Age

Second Marriage

Brief Encounter at the Delicatessen

They're Back

Christmas Presents for Fifty Years and Over

And Now You Want to Know If There Is Anything Good to Say about Getting Older

Eight Basic Facts about Memory

How Can People Want to Bring Children into This Terrible World?

FOREVER FIFTY

Before I Go

You Might As Well Laugh

Some Advice from a Mother to Her Married Son

When Asked to What They Owe the Success of Their Marriage, He and She Completely Agree that Love Is Accommodation

Medical Tests

More Questions

A Sexy Old Lady

The Pleasures of an Ordinary Life