Friday Reads: Poetry for Young Readers
Let’s hear it for the poets! And you can be one, too! As we continue to celebrate National Poetry Month, our spotlight turns to poetry for kids and teens (and truly all ages!). Poetry – reading and writing it – is a wonderful mental health tool! And here are some beautiful books filled with joyful, imaginative, and cathartic verse in various forms:
This collection of poems, creatively presented in the format of an allegorical house, will engage anyone who has ever wondered “why?” as it shows young readers that wonder is everywhere—in yourself and in the world around you.
In Call Us What We Carry, Gorman explores history, language, identity, and erasure through an imaginative and intimate collage. Harnessing the collective grief of a global pandemic, this beautifully designed volume features poems in many inventive styles and structures and shines a light on a moment of reckoning. Call Us What We Carry reveals that Gorman has become our messenger from the past, our voice for the future.
For centuries, haiku has offered meditation on the grace and majesty of nature. In Climbing the Volcano, old meets new as a young protagonist uses the poetic form to voice his wonder. Trekking uphill, the family encounters tiny toads, colorful butterflies, soaring birds of prey, and so much more to see, do, and feel.
A Coretta Scott King Honor Book and Winner of the Walter Dean Myers Award
In this semi-autobiographical collection of poems, Renée Watson writes about her experience growing up as a young Black girl at the intersections of race, class, and gender. Using a variety of poetic forms, from haiku to free verse, Watson shares recollections of her childhood in Portland, tender odes to the Black women in her life, and urgent calls for Black girls to step into their power. Black Girl You Are Atlas encourages young readers to embrace their future with a strong sense of sisterhood and celebration. With full-color art by celebrated fine artist Ekua Holmes throughout, this collection offers guidance and is a gift for anyone who reads it.
For the first time, legendary author Jane Yolen gathers the largest single anthology of her poetry celebrating childhood. At home or at school, playing sports or practicing music, enjoying the holidays or delighting in each season, Jane Yolen’s masterful collection shows just how lively it is to be a kid. With whimsical artwork by Cathrin Peterslund, this gathering of more than one hundred poems is a classic that children are sure to return to again and again.
Equal parts heart-melting and stinky, The Smell of Wet Dog is a must-have illustrated poetry book for every young canine fan. Beloved author and illustrator Barney Saltzberg offers up twenty-seven poems on the evergreen topic of human’s best friend. Many have all the humor of a Shel Silverstein classic. Others are unexpectedly poignant, about separation anxiety or older dogs growing less spry. All are accompanied by Saltzberg’s lively and loveable artwork.
Sylvia Plath is remembered for her stirring poetry and the tragic legacy her work left behind. But it is lesser known that she was a beekeeper and completed her last book of poems while tending to her bees and harvesting honey. Author and beekeeper Amy Novesky shines a new light on the life and work of Plath through the lens of her last seasons with her beloved bees—and how during their short and busy lives, they filled her with inspiration and hope—while the evocative paintings by Stonewall Book Award winner Jessica Love reveal the tenderness and wonder of one of America’s most iconic poets.
Is Piglet a poet? Each of five charming stories captures a warm snapshot into some happy moment in childhood while demonstrating how to create a different kind of poem: a puddle poem, a comparing poem, a making-a-person-out-of-something poem, an if-I-was poem, and an I-would-give-you poem. With plenty of tips and tricks after each story and fresh illustrations by Sam Usher, author Sean Taylor makes poetry writing accessible, inspiring even the youngest of children to find their voice and call themselves poets.
The inspiring story of Rumi’s journey from a young refugee to a renowned poet shows how his childhood helped shape his poetry.
In this powerful middle-grade novel-in-verse, Dylan seeks solace through birdwatching and poetry in the woods behind his grandfather’s auto shop—but when he rescues an injured hawk, he must learn to confront the broken parts in himself, too.
For more on these and other relevant titles visit National Poetry Month for Younger Readers
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