April Book List - Poetry

April’s theme is POETRY! Rhyming is an amazing tool to assist young readers with difficult words and spelling, yet according to Dr. Seuss, a pioneer in introducing poetry into children’s books, “The problem with writing a book in verse is, to be successful, it has to sound like you knocked it off on a rainy Friday afternoon. It has to sound easy.” As we get older, poems become a complex, expressive art form, and they can say a lot about ourselves and our culture.

Board Books (Pre-K)

  • I Took the Moon for a Walk, by Alison Jay
  • Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
  • The Swing, by Robert Louis Stevenson and illustrated by Julie Morstad

Early Reader (School-age kids)

  • Where the Sidewalk Ends, by Shel Silverstein
  • Poetry for Young People series, published by Scholastic

Young Adult (Ages 14-21)

  • Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman
  • The Collected Poems, by Sylvia Plath
  • Montage of a Dream Deferred, by Langston Hughes
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