Poetry Roundup!
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It’s never too early to start reading poetry with your kids, whether you read poetry during teatime, over after-school snacks or in the evening as a poetry family-slam (try it, it’s SO fun-my kids always got very into it and it inspired them to try their hand at their own poems too). There is something simple yet mysterious about poetry and I feel like children are naturally quite adept at understanding the secret meanings and messages embedded within!
Here are some of our favorites to get you started:
Sing A Song of Seasons: This is a gorgeously illustrated anthology of nature poems-366 in all-from a wide variety of poets from Langston Hughes and Emily Dickinson to N. M. Bodecker and Okamoto Kanoko. We kept it out one year by our kitchen table and each kid took turns reading one poem a day. Highly recommend!
The Tree That Time Built: A fabulous anthology of more than 100 poems celebrating the natural world. This is perfect for anytime, but especially spring! This also includes a CD which has many of the original poets reading their poems and that’s been particularly striking for both the kids, and myself!
Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices: This one by Paul Fleischman must be read aloud by two people. It's all about the insect world so I was honestly a bit suspect at first, but so well-written and fun to read together and hear the cadence of the lines along with the two voices in tandem (you see this particularly in 'The Grasshopper'!)
Seeds, Bees, Butterflies, and More!: Another collection of poetry for two voices. My kids just love them and they are perfect for spring!
A Light in the Attic and Where the Sidewalk Ends: I remember that feeling of reading Shel Silverstein for the first time as a kid and thinking: adults can really write silly stuff like this?! And this is actual poetry? As a child I would read these books over and over again (these are my well-worn childhood copies but you can still find them on Amazon) and my siblings and I used to read them aloud to each other, giggling the entire time. When I showed them to the boys, they had equal reactions; jaw-dropping admiration for the zany wit of Silverstein and unable to put them down.
Lemonade and Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word:This collection of poems takes a word that children recognize, such as 'Pepperoni' and arranges them so that they become a poem of short lines: One / pie / no / pepper / onion. It's genius and it took us a while to get used to author Bob Raczka's style, but we appreciate it and love it!
Wet Cement: A Mix of Concrete Poems:Another Bob Raczka one that we love. This is a collection of visual poems (i.e: the one entitled 'Clock' actually looks like a clock) and it makes the kids think hard about what he's trying to convey with his 'word paintings' as he refers to them. Even the table of contents is drawn to look like a table!
When Green Becomes Tomatoes: Poems for All Seasons: Oh how I love both Julie Fogliano and Julie Morstad! And combined they are a powerful creative duo with this collection of poetry that celebrates the seasons. Each poem is entitled a different day of the year which helps kids connect what is happening weather-wise to their feelings. From the example below ('march 22') you can see that this is a collection that speaks to adults as much as it does for kids. I have several memorized as do my boys! One special moment came last August when my middle son and I were picking ripe tomatoes out of the garden and he goes "Mom, I get it now! When GREEN becomes TOMATOES". Ah, YES.
Beastly Verse:This one is new to us this year but boy did it get our attention with the combination of classic poems (Lewis Carroll's 'The Crocodile' and William Blake's 'The Tyger' just to name a few) and bright bold illustrations by JooHee Yoon. So far we've just been checking it out from the library but it's been such a hit here, I have a feeling it'll end up as someone's birthday book gift soon. And the clever British poetry has won us over: 'in what furnace is thy brain?' is now a well-repeated zinger around these parts.
enormous smallness: This isn't so much a collection of poems as it is a biography about poet e.e. cummings but it includes several of his at the end so I wanted to include it here. It was fun to explain to my kids that it wasn't that long ago that someone decided to break the poetry mold and try something innovative (all lowercase, lots of punctuation, etc). It's a creative and inspiring read!
The Blacker the Berry: This one is a collection by Joyce Carol Thomas and Floyd Cooper (both Coretta Scott King honorees) about all the shades and hues of the color black. The poems are short enough to hold kids attentions and the illustrations are done in whimsical soft palettes. And while some kids may be too young to comprehend the double entendre of many of the stanzas, I feel like this is a great one to have in a home library as they can easily grow into it. Lots of wonderful themes about self-love, diversity, and acceptance. One of my favorite lines from the book: "colors, without black, couldn't sparkle quite so bright".
Cast Away: Poems for our Time: This is a fabulous collection for middle grade kids and older about those things that we cast away (plastic bottles, etc). Slightly humorous, a bit provocative at times, this collection is about what we often thoughtlessly toss away (both literally and metaphorically).
A Child's Garden of Verses:Take the liveliness of Robert Louis Stevenson's poems and combine them with the loveliness of Tasha Tudor's illustrations and you can get a fabulous treasury that you'll read over and over again. This one is oft reached for on our Poetry-Slam Wednesdays when they'd rather recite than write.
Bronzeville Boys and Girls: I’ve always loved poet Gwendolyn Brooks so I love this collection which is perfect for children as this collection includes over 30 poems she wrote about the lives and dreams of children living in the Bronzeville section of Chicago in the 1950s. The art by Caldecott Honor artist Faith Ringgold is amazing as well!
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: The Poetry of Fred Rogers: I must admit I was a bit skeptical of how this would work, but it’s just a beautiful book! I can hardly get through three poems without tearing up and my children love that they speak to the language of their hearts and experiences, nothing less than I’d expect from Mr. Rogers!
Write! Write! Write!: Read enough poetry to the kids and chances are their begging to try their hands at it! I love this collection of poems dedicated to the craft of writing!
Thunder Underground: We love this fabulous collection of poems about life underground (caves, subways, animal burrows, tunnels, etc). It's a unique mix of physical science & poetry and definitely speaks my boys love language! Poems by the formidable Jane Yolen, colorfully illustrated by Josée Masse.
Fresh-Picked Poetry: A Day at the Farmer's Market:Our little small town's farmer's market is right next to our library so some of our favorite weekend mornings spring through fall involve biking or walking downtown, picking up eggs, greens & berries and swinging by the library. This one channels your inner foodie and celebrates all things fresh with poems such as "Is it Ripe" to "Sally's Sweet Corn" and gets everyone in the family looking forward to the next market day.
Miguel's Brave Knight: In this one, author Margarita Engle channels what a young Miguel de Cervantes must have felt like growing up with a gambling father that put the family into debt several times. All this family drama would lead to many daydreams of knights on steeds that would right everything that was wrong with the world. We've read an abridged version of 'Don Quixote' so my children (at least, the boys) are familiar with the basic storyline and were inspired to see how Cervantes dreamed up a story that would essentially become the first modern novel.
I Heard it From Alice Zucchini: Poems About the Garden: Just the title alone endeared it to my kids! Whimsical and playful these are perfect for when you and your crew are ready to dig in the dirt!
I'm Just No Good at Rhyming (And Other Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-ups): This one is hilarious! Written by Chris Harris, it's full of word play and zany humor and in the right spirit, you'll enjoy it just as much as your kids do! Lane Smith's illustrations here add the perfect touch. This is a must-have for your playful poetry nights.
Sing a Song of Seasons: A dear friend gifted this to us this Christmas and it’s been the perfect way to start each day with one poem. Some are anonymously written, others by well-known poets and many by new-to-us poets. A great introduction to poetry for all ages with exquisite artwork!
The Hill We Climb: One of my few pre-orders of 2021! YES. I love how Amanda Gorman is now a household name and inspiring kids and adults alike with her amazing poetry.
What Are you Glad About? What Are you Mad About? My ten year old devoured this one in two days he loved it so much. It’s quite humorous and a witty peek into the psyche of elementary school children. By Judith Viorst, author of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
Poetry for Kids Series (individual titles below): OH.MY.GOODNESS. This series of books is just wonderful. The series began in 2016 with the majority of the titles published in 2017 and most recently, Shakespeare in 2018. Each book provides a brief bio about the author, lovingly illustrated poems, definition of key words (to help the younger set) and depending on the book, commentary for each poem (for example, in the Whitman book, NYU Professor Karen Karbenier, PhD, explains Whitman's poetry). You know a series is good when it's hard to choose but trust me, these make a fabulous addition to any home library, kids OR adults.
Poetry for Kids: Emily Dickinson
