The Best Poetry Books for Children

Wet Cement A Mix of Concrete Poems by Bob Raczka

Shape poems paint a picture on the page — and these do an amazing job. The Hanger poem is shaped like a hanger, Dominoes are shaped just like falling dominoes with fun texts about pushing single file down the row. I love the Corners poem about a hungry mouse looking for cheese that is shaped like a maze. These are inspiring! (This book is on my BEST CHILDREN’S NONFICTION BOOKS OF 2016 list.)

Short Poems

Here’s a Little Poem collected by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Polly Dunbar
Start your kids early with these 60 short poems about and for toddlers.

All the Small Poems and Fourteen More by Valerie Worth, illustrated by Natalie Babbitt
These poems exemplify how poets use minimal words to SHOW, not tell! Love these.

Poem In Your Pocket For Young Poets edited by Bruno Navasky
The poems include selections from both male and female poets, many of them I’m hadn’t read before. Because the poems are rich in sensory images, they’re ripe for illustration which is a fantastic way to get kids to think deeply about the meaning of the poem.

Rhyming Poetry Books (Mostly)

I’ve Lost My Hippopotamus by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Jackie Urbanovic
Kids love these hilarious poems!

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
A must-own classic poetry book of funny, memorable poems.

I’m No Good at Rhyming and Other Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups by Chris Harris, illustrated by Lane Smith
If you like to laugh, run to buy this book. It’s wordplay at its silliest in the vein of Shel Silverstein with randomness that kids love (misnumbered pages and rivalry between Harris and Smith). I dare you not to laugh!

The Forest has a Song  by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, illustrated by Robbin Gourley
I’ve been a big fan of Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s blog, The Poem Farm, and am thrilled with her first book!! (Download activities here.)

First Flight (click to hear it read by Amy)

Mommy, I’m scared to be this high.
   All owls are scared on their first try.

My tail feathers feel so tingly with fear.
   You can do it. Calm down. Careful now. Steer.

I can’t see a thing through all this black.
   Just go to Spruce and come right back.

FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP — WHOOOSH!
FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP — SWOOOSH !

Look, Mom! I made it! Wow! I can fly!
  I knew you could. You were born for sky. 

 

 
A Round of Robins by Katie Hesterman, illustrated by Sergio Ruzzier
I am the biggest fan of Sergio Ruzzier’s illustrations. Once again, his art totally captures the essence of the poetic text, in this case, the life of robins. First, the robin parents build a nest, then guard their eggs, and eventually raise their baby birds to be independent. The rhyming poems are joyful, playful, and fun to read out loud. Teachers, you’ll love using these poems in your writing workshop. Vibrant action verbs capture the lives of this bird family, “Jumble, jostle, rumble, squirm” or “Wiggle, ship / Squiggle, slip“. (Added to: Beautiful Books About Birds)

 

Boom! Bellow! Bleat! Animal Poems for Two or More Voices by Georgia Heard, illustrated by Aaron DeWitt
This is a MUST-OWN book for teachers and school libraries, homeschoolers and poetry-loving parents. It captures the most interesting sounds of nature. Kids will clamor to read these with parents, teachers, friends, and classmates. Not only will kids understand the beauty of words, oral reading, and imagery but they’ll see the playfulness of words and discover new animal sounds they’ve never known.

The poems are written in several colors. Children will choose the color of text to read (black or red, for example) starting with the poem “Animal Songs.” One reader reads the animal name written in black text. The other reads that animal’s sound written in red text. (“Kangaroos / Chortle“) The book is filled with the noise of fish, geese, frogs, mockingbirds, snakes, bees, and many more animals.

“Songsters of the Sea”
I dive
down deep
in a sapphire sea.
  Suspended.
          I sing.
          an aria.
WOOOOOOOO
WOOOOOOOO
My watery hymn
serenades humpback whales
thousands of miles away.
         Like an echo.
          I hear a whale sing.
         my song back to me.
…
(This is an excerpt, not the full poem.)

I adore the many sounds of elephants. So will you. Listen– Sort, ruuuuummmble, roar, cry, bark, …

Read! Read! Read! by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, illustrated by Ryan O’Rourke
The poet celebrates a child’s life filled with reading, the culture of reading, and I love every single poem! “A book gives you a double life. / It builds a treehouse in your head / a haven you can climb to / when you wish to get away.” The poems show kids reading while eating and at school, they show readers transported and affected by stories,  they show readers researching and remembering.  “And as I chew I read. / And as I read I chew.“

Poetry for Kids Emily Dickinson edited by Susan Snively, PhD, illustrated by Christine Davenier
I’m already a HUGE Emily Dickinson fan so the poems, to me, are wonderful. But, what sets this book apart are the whimsical illustrations. They bring the poems to life! Especially for children.

Echo & Echo by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Josee Massee
Marilyn Singer skillfully writes the most amazing, want-to-read-again, reverso poems about Greek myths. Reverso poems are poems that are flipped upside down, more or less, and still make sense! I especially love the “Pandora and the Box” and “King Midas and His Daughter” poems. All the poems are beautifully illustrated, too. This is a must own poetry book for classrooms and homes.

Follow Follow A Book of Reverso Poems
by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Josee Masse
Here are more fairy tale reversos, or poems meant to be read from top to bottom as well as from bottom to top. (Why they’re called “reversos”.) They’re fun, make you think, and surely will inspire many writers to try their own reversos.

Birthday Suit

Behold his glorious majesty:
me.
Who dares say he drained the treasury
on
nothing?
Ha!
This emperor has
sublime taste in finery!
Only a fool could fail to see.

 

One Last Word by Nikki Grimes
Teachers, use this book in your classroom to teach the “Golden Shovel” poetic form. It’s SO creative. And, the poems in this small book are stunning, filled with wisdom and relatable life stories. Grimes takes a line from a Harlem Renaissance poem then uses the words to create a new poem.

 

A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms compiled by Paul B. Janeczko, illustrated by Chris Raschka
This playful poetry book introduces 29 poetic forms including song, story, statement, question, and haiku.

Haiku Poetry Books

Hi, Koo! by Jon Muth
Stillwater’s nephew explores the seasons captured in snapshot haikus. Muth explains, “. . . haiku is like an instant captured in words — using sensory images.” If you read closely you’ll see that the 26 poems follow the alphabet. Beautiful. Does this make you want to go outside?

Reading aloud
a favorite book
an audience of sparrows

Animal Ark Celebrating Our Wild World in Poetry and Pictures by Kwame Alexander, photos by Joel Sartore
I immediately thought of so many classroom applications for this gorgeous photographic poetry book about animals. Alexander writes about each animal or animal grouping in evocative haikus with jaw-dropping photographs taken by Joel Sartore. For a dramatically angled fruit bat on a black background, Alexnder writes “wings like a cape / ready for flight / into the sweet, dark night” then later “a hundred feet / walking without a sound / one direction” is the text describing a gigantic 2-page photograph of an Asian millipede. Teachers, can you imagine using the photos as writing prompts for students’ own haikus? And how this could spark discussion and research on the animals shown?!

 

 

Poetry Speaks to Children with a CD of poems read by the poets, edited by Elise Paschen, illustrated by Judy Love, Wendy Rasmussen, and Paula Zinngrabe Wendland

Firefly July edited by Paul B. Janeczko, illustrated by Melissa Sweet
GORGEOUS illustrations and compelling poems — these poems are beautiful and SHORT.

Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat, edited by Nikki Giovanni with a CD!!

Here’s a Little Poem A Very First Book of Poetry edited by Jane Yolen and Andrew Fusek Peters, illustrated by Polly Dunbar
These 60+ poems are top-notch making this a must-own book for young children.

Forget-Me-Nots: Poems to Learn By Heart
by Mary Ann Hoberman (former Children’s Poet Laureate,) illustrated by Michael Emberley

Poetry Speaks to Children (Book & CD) edited by Elise Paschen and Dominique Raccah, Illustrated by Judy Love and Paula Zinngrabe Wendland
What a fantastic selection of poems for kids. The cd makes it even better!