parade of poetry

April is National Poetry Month.  Today I would like to share with you some poetry books that my students or I have been enjoying.

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry is a collection of poems gathered by J. Patrick Lewis.  There are plenty of poems in this book, but the draw really is the excellent photographs of the different animals.  If your child likes animals, this would be a good way to nudge them toward enjoying poetry as well.  It could be used with any age of elementary students.  At the end, there are some suggestions on how to write animals poems in different styles-couplet, shape, haiku, limerick and free verse.

Dear Hot Dog by Mordicai Gerstein is a poetry book written about everyday things.  Gerstein writes primarily in free verse and does well at creating word pictures about ordinary things.     

 

Neighborhood Odes by Gary Soto is for older elementary or middle school students.  Soto crafts a collection of poems about about things like shoes, the library, and La Llorona.  Soto is Hispanic, and he reflects some of his culture in his poems, making references to Mexico and Mexican things.  

Three more poetry books for children and adults that I would recommend are Poetry Matters by Ralph Fletcher,  Falling Down the Page by Georgia Heard here, and Dirt on My Shirt by Jeff Foxworthy.