Poetry Books

 

Title: A Stick is an Excellent Thing

Genre: Poetry

Author: Marilyn Singer

Illustrator: LeUyen Pham

Awards: N/A

Age Group: 5-7 years old

Teacher evaluation: I would use this book in my classroom for a read-aloud for kindergarten or first grade. It is a great book to introduce students to poetry as it is about universal types of play. Games such as hide-and-seek, hopscotch, and imaginative play such as turning a stick into a magic wand are included in the book. With bold illustrations and fun lyrical poems, I can see students loving this book!

Summary: This book is about an energetic group of children in a neighborhood as they indulge in outdoor activities on a summer day. They play catch with a ball, walk on the edges of a sidewalk, splash in puddles, blow bubbles, jump rope, go on the playground, go to a splash pad, and so much more. For example, the poem about bubbles goes like this: "This bubble I'm blowing, this bubble is growing -- this bubble of ginormous size. It's as big as a plate. You can watch it inflate. This bubble will win me a prize." This is just one of the many fun poems written and illustrated in this book. 

Title: Joyful Noise

Genre: Poetry

Author: Paul Fleischman 

Illustrator: Eric Beddows

Awards: Newbery Medal

Age Group: 8-12 years old

Teacher evaluation: I would incorporate this book into my classroom as a fun reading activity involving partners for third to sixth grade. This book celebrates the insect world and each poem is filled with joyful noise as students read about an aspect of each insect's life. Each poem is written in 2 parallel columns for 2 people to read aloud at the same time. In a way, it's almost like a piece of music. I could also use this book for a science lesson when teaching my students about insects. 

Summary: This book contains 14 poems and they are about all different kinds of insects. Some examples of poems the book features are The Moth's Serenade, Grasshoppers, Fireflies, Cicadas, Honeybees, and House Crickets. The Moth's Serenade is about moths flying toward a light. Grasshoppers is about grasshoppers hopping around from plant to plant. Fireflies is about how fireflies are painters of the night. Cicadas is about 2 cicadas singing to make a joyful noise. Honeybees is about a queen and a worker bee. House Crickets is about the adventures of a cricket inside a house. These poems are told with humor, romance, sadness, and much more as you celebrate the lives of insects.  

Title: Firefly July

Genre: Poetry

Author: poems selected by Paul B. Janeczko

Illustrator: Melissa Sweet

Awards: N/A

Age Group: 5-7 years old

Teacher evaluation: I would use this book to do a read-aloud for kindergarten or first grade as an introduction to poetry. Each poem is extremely short and written by a different author. It has bold and colorful illustrations that students are sure to enjoy. It also leaves a feeling of wanting to savor every season.

Summary: This book contains 36 short poems about small things to appreciate during each season. The flowers that bloom in the spring, an orange cat in a field of daisies, the crowd of people during rush hour, fireflies in the summer, the rocky shore with sparkling water on a beach, the September breeze, and the winter winds. These are just a few examples of the topics covered in the book.