A Book Recommendation for National Poetry Month

It’s National Poetry Month, and while I dislike the idea of constraining poetry to one month (same for women’s history, black history, etc.), I see no reason not to use it as an occasion to celebrate. I’ll be doing a variety of poetry-related pieces throughout the month. Stay tuned.

I’ll start with a book recommendation: The Bill Martin Jr. Big Book of Poetry. Martin, as many of you may know, is the author of children’s classics Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and (with illustrator Eric Carle) Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? The poetry book is more than just Martin’s poems, however: he and co-editor Michael Sampson have compiled a diverse collection that includes children’s authors like Margaret Wise Brown, but also “adult” authors like Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and Langston Hughes (proving, perhaps, that “adult” and “child” is an artificial distinction here).

The poems are grouped by category: There are ones about animals and nature, people and places, times of year, school, feelings, family, and food, as well as a handful of nonsense poems. There is one section of Mother Goose, although when I bought the book for my own son, it was because I was looking for something a little more interesting and substantive than the well-worn volume of Mother Goose he’s had since he was a wee one. The poems in the Big Book of Poetry are therefore capable of amusing kids from the very youngest ages up through elementary school, at least, launching them beyond Mother Goose but not forgetting that the good Mother is still one of the best ways to introduce kids to poetry.

The “Family and Home” section is not LGBT inclusive per se, but there is only one poem that has both a mom and a dad (and one or two others like that throughout the book). The others have just a dad or just a mom, which make them more flexible. (And Langston Hughes’ “Grandpa’s Stories” is good for any family with a grandpa.) It would be nice to have some poems that show two moms or two dads, but LGBT families should not find too much here that is offputting. Most of the poems speak to common experiences that many kids share.

For more National Poetry Month goodness, stop by the A Poem A Day site from the Houston-based Writers in the Schools program, managed by none other than Robin Reagler of The Other Mother. She is showcasing some amazing poems written by kids. Robin is also maintaining a separate blog of the poems she is writing for National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo).

What poems/poets/books of poetry do you like to share with your children?