Reading poetry can build literacy skills for both beginning and more proficient readers. Young children whose exposure to poetry has given them an ear for rhyme can learn letter-sound patterns quickly. More proficient readers can build their vocabulary and comprehension skills by paying close attention to the ways poets use language. Encourage young readers always to read poems aloud.
Early Readers
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A City Is
Norman Rosten
These short poems about the sights and sounds of New York City will particularly appeal to city children. The free-verse poems use lots of descriptive words and phrases that will help emergent readers learn new vocabulary.
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Sing a Song of Popcorn: Every Child’s Book of Poems
edited by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers, Eva Moore, Mary M. White, and Jan Carr
These funny poems by such famous poets as A. A. Milne, Emily Dickinson, Shel Silverstein, and Langston Hughes are delightfully illustrated by Caldecott-winning artists including Maurice Sendak and Marcia Brown. The poems are divided by subject, so kids can easily find ones they are interested in reading. Even the youngest readers and listeners will feel the energy and humor of these poems.
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Sylvie Long’s Mother Goose
illustrated by Sylvie Long
Sylvie Long’s illustrations bring to life the classic nursery rhymes many children nowadays have not necessarily learned at home or in preschool. Children will enjoy the rhythm and rhyming patterns. They may even like to discuss such questions as “Can a dish really run away with a spoon?"
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Where the Sidewalk Ends
Shel Silverstein
The thirtieth anniversary edition of Silverstein’s well-loved book includes 12 new poems. Kids like the way Silverstein’s poems deal with subjects they can relate to. The humor and kid-friendly illustrations make reading Silverstein’s poetry fun.
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Transitional Readers
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For Laughing Out Loud: Poems to Tickle Your Funnybone
edited by Jack Prelutsky
Everyone loves to laugh, and Prelutsky’s anthology caters to that basic human need. The nonsense and rhymes in these poems will entertain most kids. Transitional readers might enjoy reading some of these poems aloud to younger children in your program.
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Rolling in the Aisles : Kids Pick the Funniest Poems, Book #4
edited by Bruce Lansky
Any of Bruce Lansky’s poetry anthologies will keep your readers laughing. Lansky gets recommendations from kids, teachers, and parents on the poems to include, and the result is a compilations of hilarious poems on all kinds of topics.
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Sad Underwear and Other Complications : More Poems for Children and Their Parents
Judith Viorst
Viorst has a special way of touching readers’ hearts with her humor. She chooses topics kids can relate to—swimming lessons, being overweight, school, parents. Try a choral reading or other performance of a few poems. If the children like this book, try Viorst’s earlier If I Were in Charge of the World and Other Worries.
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That Sweet Diamond: Baseball Poems
Paul B. Janeczko
These poems and illustrations take readers right into the heart of the baseball field. It probably helps to be a baseball fan, but any child who likes sports or outdoor pastimes will be able to relate to these poems about the fans, the plays, and the game.
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Independent Readers
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Classic Poems to Read Aloud
edited by James Berry
Berry has compiled 138 poems from a wide variety of poets, mostly classical but also including some less-often-heard voices. Some of the featured poets are Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Anne Sexton, and Sitting Bull. Readers will be exposed to many different styles of poetry.
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Movin': Teen Poets Take Voice
edited by Dave Johnson
This exciting book contains poetry submitted by teens to the New York Public Library’s poetry workshops and website. The teens have written about many familiar subjects, such as love, sports, and growing up. Teens in your program may be inspired to write their own poetry when they see their peers’ work in print.
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Swimming Upstream: Middle School Poems
Christine O’Connell
Humorous, poignant poems explore familiar school situations: walking down the hall with a huge wooden pass, not being able to open your locker, and deciding where to sit in the lunchroom. Who can’t relate to that?
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Words with Wings: A Treasury of African-American Poetry and Art
edited by Belinda Rochelle
Rochelle has paired 20 poems and with an equal number of paintings by African-American poets and artists of the 19th and 20th centuries. The poems and paintings vividly portray African-American history, family, and culture.
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