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Brief language and simple illustrations in comic book format ask readers to consider their everyday world in fresh and new ways. Short poems and sly humor abound in this creative approach.
Poetry Comics
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As a girl, Rachel Carson did not realize that she would influence so many to respect and protect the natural world. Lyrical verse, gracefully illustrated, fictionalizes Carson’s life and relationships with her family and others.
Force of Nature: A Novel of Rachel Carson
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Join children as they enjoy each month, the change of seasons, and the pleasures it brings. Short, rhythmic poems are sure to engage as readers view the simple, colorful illustrations for a satisfying look at a year of changes.
Round and Round the Year We Go
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They’re beautiful in so many ways, tall or small, leafy or spiky, and can be found around the world. Short, varied poems introduce a range of trees from across the globe, encouraging readers to care for them. Colorful illustrations will help young readers to identify specific trees.
Tree Whispers
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A range of poets, from Lois Lowry to Lee Bennett Hopkins, express thanks for critters small and large. Expressive, idealized watercolors depict adorable animals and children in poems of gratitude.
Bless Our Pets: Poems of Gratitude for Our Animal Friends
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It’s the night before Lunar New Year, and a little girl is excited for all of the celebrations to come. She’s prepared dumplings with her mom, bought a new dress in Chinatown, and even helped scare mythical beast Nian away with her cousins and brother. There’s only one problem: she’s a bit nervous about all of the loud noises at the upcoming Lunar New Year Parade. Will she overcome her fears? Written in the style of The Night Before Christmas.
The Night Before Lunar New Year
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Evocative poetry and lovely watercolor artwork brings the Christmas story to life for young readers. Animals from across the ancient Palestinian landscape lumber, gambol, crawl, fly, and parade toward Bethlehem with gifts worthy of the newborn King. Rare ebony wood, a finely tuned harp, mustard and saffron, a zither, apricot cakes, and other treasures are carried to the manger. The animals bow low and join the music of the angels in a welcoming lullaby.
Lullaby for the King
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Short poems are generously illustrated in a large, inviting, and diverse collection of poetry— and as the title indicates, there is at least one for each day! To build on daily poems, try some of the ideas in Poetry Prompts: All Sorts of Ways to Start a Poem from Joseph Coelho (opens in a new window).
A Whale of a Time: Funny Poems for Each Day of the Year
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Short, mostly familiar rhymes and lullabies are gently illustrated by textured embroidered images, just right to remind adults of the power of short rhymes meant to be shared with the youngest.
Read to Your Baby Every Night
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Fefa struggles with words. She has word blindness, or dyslexia, and the doctor says she will never read or write. Every time she tries, the letters jumble and spill off the page, leaping away like bullfrogs. How will she ever understand them? But her mother has an idea. She gives Fefa a blank book filled with clean white pages. “Think of it as a garden,” she says. Soon Fefa starts to sprinkle words across the pages of her wild book. She lets her words sprout like seedlings, shaky at first, then growing stronger and surer with each new day. And when her family is threatened, it is what Fefa has learned from her wild book that saves them.
The Wild Book
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Told in the voices of young people, a novel in verse about the attack on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Author Jacqueline Jules, who was a school librarian in Arlington, Virginia on 9/11, tells the story of that day through a tapestry of poems.
Smoke at the Pentagon
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Harjo thinks of “a poem as a pocket or an envelope that can hold dreams, thoughts or anything else …” Her sophisticated poem calls on us to “Remember the sky that you were born under,/know each of the star’s stories.” It is presented in lushly illustrated picture book format to reflect the indigenous stories from which they derive, calling on all to remember.
Remember
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Two tweens are suspended for fighting in school. Their story is told in verse from two points of view: Ebony (aka Eb) and Flow (real name De’Kari). Their lives gradually unfold in readable free verse and as readers come to understand them, and both Eb and Flow begin to realize they share a lot in common, ultimately reaching détente in this plausible and moving novel.
Eb & Flow
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Nature has inspired countless designs from the umbrella to space saving and naturally cooled buildings. Short poetry (Japanese tanka) accompanies a handsome illustration of the object that inspired the human invention shown in a photograph on the opposing page. Additional information is carefully presented at the end as are additional resources.
Copycat: Nature-Inspired Design Around the World
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Poetry, photography, and information combine to present a range of fascinating creatures. Though rhymes can feel a bit forced, the combination is a unique introduction to a range of bees, bugs, and other things that crawl and skitter. By the same creative team: Bugs: Exploring the World of Crawly Critters.
Bees: Honeybees, Bumblebees, and More
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Sophisticated readers will enjoy this poetic exploration of light. Luminous illustrations show light’s variations in both the familiar and abstract as a child awakens to first light, and later views stars — after all, “light speaks.” Back matter includes brief information about light and related light topics.
Light Speaks
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Experience each season with graceful haikus and soft illustrations with colors that reflect the changes. Lift the flap and see the small animals as they, too, experience summer, fall, winter, and spring.
Peek-a-Boo Haiku
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This book celebrates the magic of discovering your very own poetry in the world around you. “Begin / with a question / like an acorn / waiting for spring.” Written as a step-by-step guide, and using language including “first,” “next,” and “then,” the authors teach the art of poetry. Readers are prompted to first ask a question, and then to “listen to the grass, the flowers, the trees — anything that’s friends with the sun” to create imagery for their poetry. The book teaches poetry by tasking students with exploring nature, questions, and ideas in unique ways.
How to Write a Poem
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A book of poems about dancing that mimic the rhythms of social dances from cha-cha to two-step — celebrating all forms of social dance from samba and salsa to tango and hip-hop. The rhythm of each poem mimics the beat of the dances’ steps. The poems create a window to all the ways dance enters our lives and exists throughout many cultures.
Feel the Beat: Dance Poems that Zing from Salsa to Swing
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A window into a child’s experience of the Great Migration. Climbing aboard the New York bound Silver Meteor train, Ruth Ellen embarks upon a journey toward a new life up North — one she can’t begin to imagine. Stop by stop, the perceptive young narrator tells her journey in poems, leaving behind the cotton fields and distant Blue Ridge mountains.
Overground Railroad
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“I can hear change humming/ In its loudest, proudest song./ I don’t fear change coming,/ And so I sing along.” As a young girl leads a cast of characters on a musical journey, they learn that they have the power to make changes — big or small — in the world, in their communities, and in most importantly, in themselves. Lyrical text and rhythmic illustrations is a call to action for everyone to use their abilities to make a difference.
Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem
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The confident Black narrator of this book is proud of everything that makes him who he is. He’s got big plans, and no doubt he’ll see them through — as he’s creative, adventurous, smart, funny, and a good friend. Sometimes he falls, but he always gets back up. There are superheroes in our midst!
I Am Every Good Thing
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Even though her mother taught her offspring to avoid dangers of the sea, the young otter encounters all of them. Follow Odder’s experiences in this moving novel in verse, which is loosely based on rehabilitated otters in the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The story, from the 2013 Newbery Medalist, is sure to engage as well as educate. Glossary and additional information are appended.
Odder
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Maya Angelou was the first Black poet and the first woman to recite poetry at a Presidential Inauguration. Her life is introduced in free verse and realistic collage to evoke the poet and her work. A timeline and notes from the award-winning author and illustrator conclude this memorable portrait.