13 Terrific Poetry Books for Kids
I grew up memorizing poetry and we’ve done the same with our children over the past few years (I still die over this little video of Ella reciting a few of her favorite poems).
But despite memorizing literally thousands of lines of poetry as a child, I’ll admit I didn’t actually love poetry all that much.
I mean, I liked the poems that I memorized, but poetry in general still seemed super intimidating to me, and I always cringed a little at the poetry units in my English classes.
Then, when I was doing my internship as a school librarian, I happened on a copy of A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams and when I knew more about him as a person and some of his most famous poems, suddenly he was my favorite poet (some gorgeous Melissa Sweet illustrations didn’t hurt either). Plus, reading poetry not in a vacuum, but as a regular book, made a huge difference for me.
Despite all our poetry memorizing in my childhood, I don’t remember reading almost any poetry books just for fun (apologies to my parents if we did indeed read hundreds of poetry picture books and I simply can’t remember any of them).
I’ve made an effort over the past few years to check out more poetry books, read them aloud to my children, and introduce them to more poets so they’re familiar and comfortable wit poetry.
Anyway, all of that is to say that with National Poetry Month (April) just around the corner, it seemed like a good time to share some of our favorite poetry books for kids. And if you have favorites of your own, I would be THRILLED to have more recommendations.
poetry books for kids
Tap Dancing on the Roof by Linda Sue Park, illustrated by Istvan Banyai.
These poems are called sijo – it’s a Korean poem that is kind of like a haiku or limerick where it has a set pattern. A sijo is distinctive because of the surprise twist in the last line. When I taught a poetry unit as a librarian this was one of my favorite books to use, with so many terrific little poems in it, plus hilarious illustrations. I highly recommend this one.
Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reverso Poems by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Josee Masse.
This poetry book is so clever – each poem tells the story of a famous fairy tale from two views and each viewpoint uses exactly the same words but in the reverse order of the other. I cannot imagine how much brain power it takes to write these, but it’s delightfully fun to read.
Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems by Paul B. Janeczko, illustrated by Melissa Sweet.
This is a great little introduction to poetry because each poem is extremely short. Plus, it just makes me want to savor every season. Also, I already told you it doesn’t get better than Melissa Sweet for me!
National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry: 200 Poems with Photographs That Squeak, Soar, and Roar! edited by J. Patrick Lewis.
My in-laws gave us this book of poetry one year when the Christmas gifts were all animal-themed and it’s been a huge hit. The photos are spectacular and the poems range from very famous to ones I’ve never heard of. The companion poetry book about nature – National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry: More than 200 Poems With Photographs That Float, Zoom, and Bloom! – is also fantastic.
A Stick Is an Excellent Thing: Poems Celebrating Outdoor Play by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by LeUyen Pham.
This was the first poetry books that my children really embraced as a read-aloud and we have read this poetry book for children hundreds of times. And then I loved hearing their little voices around the house reciting their favorite bits.
Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman.
This book won the 1989 Newbery and each poem, all about nature and bugs, is meant for two people to recite together. In homeschool one year, we each got paired with another child in our group to memorize one. I can still recite much of “Being A Bee” twenty years later, and this one is perfect for memorizing with your child and performing together.
Poetry for Young People: Maya Angelouby
The Poetry for Young People series is terrific (I got one of them when I was a child and I still own and love it!) – each book features some of the most famous poems by a specific poet alongside stunning illustrations (each book is done by a different artist so they all have their own unique look and feel). Plus, there’s an excellent introduction to the poet by the editor at the beginning. If you’re looking to dive deep into some of the most famous poets, these poetry books for kids are a can’t miss.
The Random House Book of Poetry for Children edited by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Arnold Lobel.
If you’re looking for a big collection of famous and fun poetry, this one is a hit. My girls love when I read them a few poems while they eat their snacks or just during the course of the day.
A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet.
I already raved about this one, but it’s reminding me to look for more picture books about the lives of famous poets (and artists and authors).
Love That Dog by Sharon Creech.
I read this one about a decade ago (full review here) and I still love it so much. It’s a short novel written in verse and imitates many different famous poems, so I think it’d make a great backbone to a poetry unit. I read it aloud to my girls a couple of years ago – you can read the whole thing in a day or two – and it is a delight. Don’t miss the sequel, Hate That Cat, either.
Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry: How to Write a Poem by Jack Prelutsky.
I love this one because not only does it share Prelutsky’s hilarious poems, but it tells about what inspired them and gives ideas for how to write your own poems. I read this aloud, a chapter a night, at dinner a few months ago, and my girls were in stitches. Frankly, there were some parts I could barely get through because I was laughing so much. I read this aloud to my 4th and 5th graders when we did the poetry unit and they were all massive fans too.
National Trust: Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright!: An Animal Poem for Every Day of the Year by
This is just the most gorgeous poetry collection. I LOVE Britta Teckentrup who does the illustrations and it’s such a fun collection of animal poems – some that you’ll know and some that are new. I keep this gorgeous volume on our end table in our living room so we can pick it up any day!
My Daddy Rules the World: Poems about Dads by
You’ll notice that lots of poetry books for kids focus on things they already know and love (that’s why animal poems are so popular with children!) and this beautiful book of poetry about dads fits right into the category of “topics children can connect with.” Sweet and funny, this poetry book is an absolute winner.
I’m going to check some of these out! The stick one sounds especially fun for this time of year. I have a book called I Haiku You which is a quick and fun little collection of Haiku poems & my older daughter loves them (and has started trying to write her own haikus). We also love an illustrated version of I Carry Your Heart by e.e. cummings https://www.amazon.ca/I-Carry-Your-Heart-Me/dp/1937359522
I grew up with A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. http://amzn.to/2oXCFny. It has a poem called “The Swing”, Or something like that, that I memorized as a little girl and my kids would here it every time we went to swing g at the park! Much like your pancakes!
I just did a poetry post myself and I put a link to your blog on it! Hope you can check it out. http://www.3winksdesign.com/home/friday-faves-14-april-is-poetry-month
I struggle so much with poetry. I want to love it and read more of it, but I don’t know how to slow down when reading it. I feel like I plow through poetry collections in just a few minutes and it’s all lost on me
The poetry book that is hands down my favorite ever is Here’s a Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry. It is so appealing to the youngest because of short meaningful age-appropriate poems and marvelous illustrations. It’s also large. it is impossible to resist. All six of my children have enjoyed it. (And everyone has probably heard of it! I hope you all love it too!) I can’t wait to check out some of your favorites, some of those titles are new to me.
I love When Green Becomes Tomatoes: Poems for all Seasons, by Julie Fogliano. Also, my favorite poetry collection is A Family of Poems, edited by Caroline Kennedy.
We LOVE “When Green Becomes Tomatoes” too! Its the most beautiful, engaging poetry for children that we’ve come across!
Hi Janssen! You included a few that we love and a couple I just added to my library request list, thank you 🙂 Our all-time favorite is The Llama Who Had No Pajama, do you guys know that one? xo
I checked out Mirror, Mirror this week and even my teenagers are fascinated! Thanks for the recommendation! (Oh, and I’m also reading Hit Makers…thanks to you…and am loving it.) Your’e the best, Janssen!
My kids hated poetry with a passion, which was painful to me because (probably not coincidentally) I memorized tons of it as a kid and can recite stuff at the drop of a hat. And I just did it — it wasn’t for school or my parents, it was mostly because sometimes I had trouble falling asleep, so a five page poem like DUNKIRK makes the night pass better.
So I was always impressed when I find (usually through Cybils recommendations) books they’d tolerate. Mirror, Mirror was a hit, and the younger one would read Joyce Sidman’s various books that combine science and poetry with me (Dark Emperor, etc.). Oh, I made them suffer through a CD of Garrison Keiller reading poems, which included “This Is Just to Say” by William Carlos WIlliams (the stole-your-plums poem), which meant that they liked Sidman’s book “This Is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness” which would be another good hook for a poetry unit for the snarkier set.
We just got a book of poetry called Outside the Box by Karma Wilson. It is so clever and fun. My kiddies have loved it.
One we have loved is Wet Cement: a Mix of Concrete Poems by Bob Raczka. They are shape poems and are very clever. He also has one called Guyku: a Year of Haiku for Boys. I just added it to our list at the library so I’m looking forward to reading it.
No Shel Silverstein?!
Like I mentioned at the end of the post, I feel like most people are already familiar with him and I was looking to recommend things that were just slightly less well-known.
I would have to add Giant Children by Brod Bagert with illustrations by Tedd Arnold. The poems are by no means educational, but my children love them for precisely that reason! What kid wouldn’t laugh at a love poem to a booger?
I quite enjoyed reading Digger, Dozer, Dumper by Hope Vestergaard! Also we liked Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant: and Other Poems by Jack Prelutsky. It was striking to me how my 2 year old really seemed drawn to the poetry! So glad to have your recommendations, too.
Oh my, your post brought back something I hadn’t thought about in years. My son (now 35 yrs old) wanted to buy a poetry book at a book fair when he was maybe 6. I frowned, thinking none of my 3 boys would like it but said OK. It turned out to be Jack Prelutsky’s “Something Big Has Been Here.” We all loved it! Our favorite was “A goat wandered into a junkyard…”. Such a great book!
Two books my grandchildren and I love are “A Child’s Calendar”, poems by John Updike. There is a wonderful poem for each month. The other is “Stand Back,” Said the Elephant, “I’m Going to Sneeze!”, by Patricia Thomas….such a cute story written in rhyme. I sent that book to my daughter’s first grade class years ago and the children LOVED it! The teacher loved it so much that I gave her a copy that Christmas.
So excited to get these from the library. I always loved poetry but have had a hard time knowing what to look for next for kids or for me as an adult. Thanks!
Do you have any recommendations for poetry for YA? My daughter loves it, but most of it is a little too dark or s** graphic for my liking for her.
“Be Glad Your Nose Is On Your Face” is our very favorite (also Prelutsky’s collection of dragon poems is fantastic.
Our favorite is ‘I’m Just No Good at Rhyming’ by Chris Harris & Lane Smith. It feels like a cleverly updated version of Shel Silverstein. Thank you for this list I’ve added several to my holds!💗
We enjoyed “I’m Just No Good at Rhyming”, too! I love silly, funny books and poems. We’ve also enjoyed “the Random House Book of Poetry for Children” for years with my children and grandchildren.
Thank you for your post, I look forward to trying more of these suggestions. Thank you for your blog and instagram– so many wonderful books and ideas.
One of my favorites is Mother Ghost; Nursery Rhymes for Little Monsters by Rachel Kolar. She’s re-written several Mother Goose nursery rhymes for Halloween. The illustrations are fantastic. I bring this out for storytime every year and everyone loves it.
I also love Winter Poems – which is a collection of 25 famous poems selected by Barbara Rogasky with illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman (my all-time favorite illustrator).
I love poetry! When my son was so little he didn’t really understand or complain we read him Robert Frost Poems. He’s pretty interested in songs with complex lyrics for a two year old, I should get him into some poetry too. The animal one and the stick one seem up his alley. My pet peeve is rhyming kids non fiction – it’s so hard to convey facts and rhyme well at the same time.
My local book store had another book by Linda Sue Park on their poetry month shelf, “The one thing you’d save”.
Here are two more poetry books to check out:
Sing a Song of Popcorn. It is illustrated by 9 Caldecott Medal winners including Maurice Sendak and Arnold Lobel.
A Child’s Book of Poems with pictures by Gyo Fujikawa. She also illustrated the Mother Goose that my children and grandchildren grew up with and a fairy tale book, as well as many board books. There is also a book of Robert Louis Stevenson poems, but it contains a poem called Foreign Children that I found very inappropriate for today’s children–it was inappropriate when it was written, but people’s world view was different then…. I glued together the pages in our book!
I would add something by Doug Florian. I love all of his poetry books, especially his animal ones!
This is a wonderful list. I would add Read-Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young, selected by Jack Prelutsky and illustrated by Marc Brown, The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog and other How-To Poems selected by Paul b. Janeczko and illustrated by Richard Jones, and Dictionary for a Better World (for upper elementary and beyond) by Irene Latham and Charles Waters and illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini. I also love Douglas Florian’s seasonal books Handsprings, Summersaults, Autumnblings, and Winter Eyes.
I’m so glad there are folks like you sharing lists and especially delightful poetry books.
Thank you for sharing this list of poetry books for kids. Is an additional way of stimulating and inspiring them.