Good poetry fosters children’s love for language and helps them build literacy. Good poetry touches emotions. It is, therefore, a healthy way for children to express their emotions and deal with emotionally challenging situations. Good poetry sets off children’s imagination, enriches their world, and makes a space in which they can dream. Good poetry allows children to look at the world in a new way. Children obtain a wealth of developmental benefits from good poetry.

Our library boasts an amazing collection of children’s poetry, which are under the call numbers J808.81, J811, and J821. It covers all the main categories in poetry and features the works of classic and contemporary poets. Here is a list of my favorite children’s poetry books.

Hidden City: Poems of Urban Wildlife by Sarah Tuttle

Guess Who, Haiku by Deanna Caswell

I'm Just No Good at Rhyming by Chris Harris

A Place to Start a Family by David Harrison

Bookjoy, Wordjoy by Pat Mora

Cricket in the Thicket: Poems about Bugs by Carol Murray

Come with Me: Poems for a Journey by Naomi Shihab Nye

My Dog May Be a Genius: Poems by Jack Prelutsky

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes edited by Arnold Rampersad

One Minute till Bedtime selected by Kenn Nesbitt

Poetry Speaks to Children edited by Elise Paschen

A Family of Poems by Caroline Kennedy

Over the Hills and Far Away: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes collected by Elizabeth Hammill

- Kai