From rhyming couplets, to haikus and free verse, poems are the way most of us first encounter words. Nursery rhymes sung at bedtime, stories with a beat, and words that rhyme all help us learn to read. Often, as adults, we like to sink our teeth into meatier works with intricate plots and a torrent of words that provide heft to our beginnings, middles, and ends. Poetry’s slight form, however, is best suited to re-capture and remember our childlike wonder at the beauty of the sensory world around us and how we use our outward senses to reflect our own emotional landscapes. These poetry books for kids share that winning combination of how language can evoke our five senses and how it makes us think and feel.
20 Accessible Poetry Books for Kids
Here are 20 wonderful poetry books for kids:
Seasonal Poetry Books
Daily poetry books are some of the most accessible and also the most invigorating entry points to poetry. Thematically organized around seasonal themes, poetry compilations like these introduce readers to a range of poetic styles, content, and voices.
Poetry Books for Kids in Pre-school to 1st Grade
For beginning readers, books that rhyme are essential to help with phonic development and a way to capture a child’s reality and imagination in a few carefully chosen words. There are plenty of rollicking, beautiful, and resonant board books with fun rhymes. This selection provides something a little different that can be enjoyed by young children and read and explored over and over again.
Poetry Books for Elementary Schoolers
Older elementary school children are key audiences for poetry. They are starting to recognize and love plays on words, they love being outdoors, and connecting their natural senses to their growing inner feelings comes naturally to this age group.
Funny Poems for Kids
Shel Silverstein is one of the most beloved poets for children. From the hilarious For Sale, featuring the narrator’s sister, to the book-length Do you Want a Pet Rhinoceros?, it’s easy to see why. Humor and word play go hand-in-hand in comic poems and puns, situational humor and the tiny moments that are writ large in a child’s life make for ample comedy. Here are several lesser-known poets who are sure to delight and can ably follow in Silverstein’s giant footsteps.
Poetry Books for Middle Schoolers
Middle schoolers straddle that line between the innocence and slapstick, effervescent humor of childhood and the introspective, thoughtful, rebellious teenage years. These poetry selections provide a similar sense of connection but with words that can touch on deeper meanings and require a larger understanding of the world and complex wordplay to grasp its multiple layers.
There they are: 20 fantastic poetry books for kids of all ages! Which of these have you enjoyed? Which ones did I miss?
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