Poetry – The Forgotten Cousin of StoryPoetry is a natural continuation of the song and rhythm children first meet in nursery rhymes and treasured picture books. Yet so often, while a child’s experience of reading is expanding to include stories, biographies and factual books, poetry comes to be seen as something separate, an eccentric offshoot on the literary family tree. Why does poetry fall by the wayside like a lonely relative, only visited when a teacher assigns a field trip? An anecdote from my time teaching college level children’s literature may offer an answer. Each semester the same scenario would unfurl after the class devoted to poetry. On their way out the door many students would confide that they had been dreading this topic. They were relieved and surprised to find there was an abundance of clever, interesting and stylish classic and contemporary poems on every topic under the sun. They all seemed to have frightening memories of memorizing long stanzas about highwaymen or daffodils. Then a much smaller group, 1 or 2 students, would linger after class to confess that (whisper) they actually loved to read poetry. Some poems so strongly connected to their own experiences that they could recite them. As they told their stories, without fail would arise the mention of an adult ( grandparent, teacher, etc.) who had read poetry aloud to them. Access to poetry at home – a book to pick up in the same way you could reach for Mike Mulligan & His Steam Shovel or James And The Giant Peach , - paired with the memory of a familiar voice reading Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Swing” or William Blake’s “The Tiger”, these things worked in tandem to kept poetry vibrant and meaningful in the lives of the adults I spoke to. In my own case, perhaps I would not even be writing these words if my Aunt Ruth had not given me Louis Untermeyer’s Golden Treasury of Poetry, a book which first impressed my shallow 3rd grade self for its sheer size alone! In that spirit, here are some poetry collections sure to nurture a new generation of poetry afficiandos. They are all good choices for any family to own, minor distinguishing characteristics are noted |
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POETRY ANTHOLOGIES |
THEMATIC POETRY |
By no means should poetry only be experienced in one large anthology. Smaller, more intimate books by one poet allow readers to explore a theme, or a poet’s individual style. Some incredibly imaginative works have a picture book look to them, as each page is devoted to only one poem with accompanying expressive art. The following are nice choices for building a more personal poetry library. |
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Barefoot Book Of Classic Poems, compiled and illustrated by Jackie Morris. $19.99. Heavily illustrated, the canons of English language: Carroll, Lear, Stevenson, Blake, etc. Classic Poetry, selected by Michael Rosen. $21.99. Chronologically arranged, 17th C to modern day, with short biographical sketches and notes on poetic forms, Paul Howard’s illustrations change style to suit the poems and accentuate rather than overwhelm. A Family Of Poems: My Favorite Poetry For Children, selected by Caroline Kennedy. $19.95. Notable for Jon Muth’s watercolor illustrations, interesting introductions to each topical section, notes on poems translated from other languages, and the inclusion of many poems not common in collections. The Random House Book Of Poetry For Children, selected by Jack Prelutsky and illustrated by Arnold Lobel. $19.95. A child friendly collection, topical arrangement, easy to browse, amazing amount of classic and contemporary poems, a great resource for a teacher, simply a must! Talking Like The Rain, selected by X.J. and Dorothy Kennedy. $21.95. Jane Dyer’s beautiful watercolors make this appeal even to preschoolers, variety of poems will hold attention of much older children, an excellent gift choice.
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Any books by the poet Douglas Florian. A master of witty wordplay, Florian is an incredibly child-friendly poet and artist. He has an evocative series of seasonal books : Autumnblings, Winter Eyes, Summersaults and Handsprings ($15.99 each), as well as poetry that captures the essence of the animal world: Insectlopedia, In The Swim, On The Wing, Mammalabilia ($7.00 each), and others. All The Small Poems and Fourteen More, by Valerie Worth. Pictures by Natalie Babbitt, $7.95. From pebbles and crickets to amoeba and magnets, deceptively simple looks at the beauty and wonder in the science of life. A Fury Of Motion: Poems For Boys, Charles Ghigna. $6.95. Set in the outdoors, classroom and sports fields, these poems have an understated emotional quality and sense of immediacy to them. Ghigna hopes by reading them, anyone (boy or girl) may get “a glimpse of who you are.” Shakespeare Bats Cleanup, Ron Koertge. $5.99. Through creative writing experiments with various types of poetic structure, 14 year old Kevin tells the story of the year mono kept him off the baseball field. It happens to be the same year he and his father are adjusting to his mother’s death, and reading, as well as writing poetry, serves as a way for Kevin to sort through his emotions. This book has real depth to it, yet it is short and so enjoyable to read it should grab even a reluctant reader’s attention. Splish Splash, Joan Graham. $6.95. A perfect pairing of graphic design by Steve Scott, with concrete poems about water in all its various forms. In concrete poetry the words are often arranged to look like objects, for instance in “Sprinkler” words shoot up vertically, in “Ice Cubes” the stanzas are little squares. Song Of The Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems, Joyce Sidman. $16.00. Beckie Prange’s woodcuts of pond and wetland scenes earned this book a Caldecott honor award. A stunning blend of nature, poetry, science and art for all ages. Surprises, poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins. $3.99. Some short poems are excellent choices for beginning readers. This book and its companion Weather (also in the I-Can-Read series), are perfect places to first meet luminaries of the poetry world such as Aileen Fisher, Lilian Moore, Felice Holman, Nikki Giovanni, David McCord, Eve Merriam and Karla Kuskin. |