Table of Contents
POETRY COLLECTIONS
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Read-Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 1986) is a collection of 200 catchy poems chosen by Jack Prelutsky and illustrated by Marc Brown. Poets include Ogden Nash, Myra Cohn Livingston, Robert Louis Stevenson, A.A. Milne, and many more. For ages 3-7. |
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By Maud and Miska Petersham, The Rooster Crows: A Book of American Rhymes and Jingles (Aladdin, 1987) is an illustrated collection of classical playtime rhymes, among them “Baby Bunting,” “The Bear Went Over the Mountain,” “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” and the immortal “I asked my mother for fifty cents/To see the elephant jump the fence.” For ages 3-7. |
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Compiled by J. Patrick Lewis, National Geographic’s award-winning Book of Animal Poetry (National Geographic Children’s Books, 2012) is a collection of 200 animal poems on everything from elephants to centipedes, paired with spectacular color photographs. For ages 4 and up. |
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John Ciardi’s You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You (HarperCollins, 1987), with irresistible illustrations by Edward Gorey, is a collection of 35 poems, some to be read by adults to kids, and some to be read by kids to adults. My favorite: “Mummy Slept Late and Daddy Fixed Breakfast.” (“Daddy fixed the breakfast/He made us each a waffle./It looked like gravel pudding./It tasted something awful.”) For ages 4-8. |
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Compiled by Jack Prelutsky and illustrated by Arnold Lobel, The Random House Book of Poetry for Children (Random House, 1983) was worn to rags in our house, which explains why we have two copies. The 572 poems are grouped into categories, among them Four Seasons; City, Oh, City!; Children, Children, Everywhere; Nonsense, Nonsense; and Alphabet Stew. For ages 4-11. |
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Edited by Elise Paschen and Dominique Raccah, Poetry Speaks to Children (Sourcebooks Mediafusion, 2005) is a 112-page illustrated poetry collection with an accompanying CD of poets reading their work. It’s a wonderful and wide-ranging assortment, featuring such poets as Rita Dove, Maxine Kumin, Emily Dickinson, Lewis Carroll, Nikki Giovanni, Alfred Noyes – with “Daddy Fell Into the Pond” – and many more. For ages 7 and up. |
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Look up books by Lee Bennett Hopkins and you’ll find a wide and wonderful range of themed poetry compilations on everything from science and math to weather, words, inventions, and holidays. Among the many titles are Weather: Poems for All Seasons (HarperCollins, 1995), My America: A Poetry Atlas of the United States (Simon & Schuster, 2000), Wonderful Words: Poems About Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening (Simon & Schuster, 2004), Incredible Inventions (Greenwillow Books, 2009), and Nasty Bugs (Dial, 2012). |
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From Sterling Publishing, the Poetry for Young People series consists of 48-page illustrated collections of the works (generally 25-30 poems) of well-known poets, plus biographical information. Among the featured poets are Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Carl Sandburg, Maya Angelou, Rudyard Kipling, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. For ages 8 and up. |
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Compiled by Michael Harrison and Christopher Stuart-Clark, One Hundred Years of Poetry for Children (Oxford University Press, 2007) is an outstanding collection of works by over 100 different poets, categorized under Mystery, Animals, Childhood, People, Scenes, War, and Love. For ages 10 and up. |
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Compiled by Stephen Dunning, Edward Lueders, and Hugh Smith, Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle (HarperTeen, 1967) is a superb, wide-ranging, and unusual collection of 300 modern poems illustrated with dramatic black-and-white photographs. One of our favorites. For ages 10 and up. |
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Talking to the Sun, edited by Kenneth Koch and Kate Farrell (Henry Holt, 1985) is a wonderful collection of poems, illustrated with artworks from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. For all ages. |
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Poetry 180, edited by Billy Collins (Random House, 2003) is an anthology of contemporary poets inspired by Collins’s poem-a-day program with the Library of Congress. Also see 180 More (2005). For ages 13 and up.
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Edited by Hayden Carruth, The Voice That is Great Within Us (Bantam, 1983) is a highly recommended collection of 20th-century American poetry. Popular for college-level poetry courses. For teens and adults. |
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Edited by Donald Hall, The Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children’s Poems (Oxford University Press, 1999) is a gorgeous volume of illustrated poems arranged in chronological order. The book begins with American Indian chants and lullabies, the early 18th-century “Alphabet” from the New England Primer (“In Adam’s fall/We sinned all”), and Clement Clarke Moore’s 19th-century “Visit from St. Nicholas” and continues with works by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickinson, Gelett Burgess, Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and many more. A delight for all ages. |
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By John Lithgow, The Poets’ Corner (Grand Central Publishing, 2007) – subtitled “The One-and-Only Poetry Book for the Whole Family” – is a delight and I’m ashamed to say I almost didn’t pick it up. Lithgow begins the book with an essay on his own experiences with poetry; then embarks on the poems, in alphabetical order by poet, from Matthew Arnold to William Butler Yeats. For each, there’s background information on the life and times of the poet, a list of his/her best-known poems, and the featured poem with follow-up commentary. It’s superb. For all ages. |