Poetry

Poetry

A selection of poems and poetry collections for kids of all ages. Be sure to try other books by these authors too!

PreK – Grade 3
Grade 3 & Up

Poems for Younger Readers (Grades PreK – 3)

• Switching on the Moon: A Very First Book of Bedtime Poems selected by Jane Yolen
• A Visit to William Blake’s Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard
• The Bill Martin, Jr. Big Book of Poetry by Bill Martin
• Days Like This: A Collection of Small Poems edited by Simon James
• Imagine That!: Poems of Never-Was selected by Jack Prelutsky
• In Daddy’s Arms I Am Tall: African Americans Celebrating Fathers illustrated by Javaka Steptoe
• The Oxford Treasury of Children’s Poems
• Yummy!: Eating Through a Day selected by Lee Bennet Hopkins
• Jump Back, Honey by Paul Laurence Dunbar
• Emily Dickinson’s Letters to the World by Jeanette Winter
• Touch the Poem by Arnold Adoff
• From the Bellybutton of the Moon and Other Summer Poems / Del Ombligo de la Luna y Otros Poemas de Verano by Fransisco X. Alarcon
• In the Wild by David Elliott
• Insectlopedia by Douglas Florian
• Little Dog Poems by Kristine O’Connell George
• You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You: Very Short Stories to Read Together by Mary Ann Hoberman
• A Tree Place and Other Poems by Constance Levy
• The Bookworm’s Feast: A Potluck of Poems by J. Patrick Lewis
• Wake Up, House!: Rooms Full of Poems by Dee Lillegard
• The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders by Jack Prelutsky
• If Not for the Cat by Jack Prelutsky
• Candy Corn by James Stevenson
• A Child’s Calendar by John Updike
• Night Garden: Poems from the World of Dreams by Janet Wong
• Shape Me a Rhyme: Nature’s Forms in Poetry by Jane Yolen
• Dinothesaurus: Prehistoric Poems and Paintings by Douglas Florian
• Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys by Bob Raczka
• Off to the Sweet Shores of Africa and Other Talking Drum Rhymes by Uzo Unobagha
• Can You Dig It and Other Poems by Robert Weinstock
• The Wonder Book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
• Daffy Down Dillies: Silly Limericks by Edward Lear
• Where Go the Boats?: Play Poems of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson

Poems for Older Readers (Grades 3 & up)

• A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children selected by Carolina Kennedy
• Voices: Poetry and Art from Around the World by Barbara Brenner
• Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman
• A Kick in the Head selected by Paul B. Janeczko
• Grassroots by Carl Sandburg
• Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
• Stone Bench in an Empty Park by Paul B. Janeczko
• Ernest L. Thayer’s Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888 by Ernest L. Thayer
• Amazing Faces selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins
• The Beauty of the Beast: Poems from the Animal Kingdom selected by Jack Prelutsky
• Falling Down the Page selected by Gerogia Heard
• Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat edited by Nikki Giovanni
• I, Too, Sing America: Three Centuries of African American Poetry by Catherine Clinton
• Poetry Speaks to Children edited by Elise Paschen
• Very Best (Almost) Friends: Poems of Friendship collected by Paul B. Janeczko
• Words With Wings: A Treasury of African-American Poetry and Art edited by Belinda Rochelle
• The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• I Am the Darker Brother: An Anthology of Poems by frican Americans edited by Arnold Adoff
• Poetrees by Douglas Florian
• The Other Side: Shorter Poems by Angela Johnson
• Freedom Like Sunlight: Praisesongs for Black Americans by J. Patrick Lewis
• Blues Journey by Walter Dean Myers
• A Maze Me: Poems for Girls by Naomi Shihab Nye
• Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman
• Mirror, Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse by Marilyn Singer
• A Foot in the Mouth: Poems to Speak, Sing and Shout by Paul Janeczko
• Technically, It’s Not My Fault: Concrete Poems by John Grandits
• Frankenstein Takes the Cake by Adam Rex
• Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art edited by Jan Greenberg

Last Updated: 8 February 2012