Children's Poetry

Kids love poetry. Honest!

Really, it's true. Children love poetry -- love to hear it read, love to read it. Part of that is because no one's yet tried to tell kids that "poetry is good for you" and turned it into a negative, but the biggest part is that there's just so much wonderful poetry to choose from. This lens will explore some of my favorite poetry for kids, both online and off, as well as talking about how to get kids (or you!) to read and enjoy poetry. Consider this lens a perpetual work in progress, and feel free to leave suggestions on what else I should think of adding.

But wait... why am I writing about children's poetry?

I've loved poetry for kids since I was pretty darn young myself, and I continue to read it for pleasure even now. Besides being a reader, I'm also a published children's poet (and have about 100 poems of mine on my blog linked along the right hand side). I've taught poetry to children. Plus, I've been the volunteer librarian at an elementary school for three years now, and I've read poetry to hundreds of kids on a weekly basis. This is a passion of mine... and I hope it will be one of yours, too.

Getting started on the poetry journey....

The world of poetry for children is broad, indeed, and the best way to get started learning about it is to read, read, read the poetry. It's not important to know the difference between, say, a sonnet and a limerick and a cinquain and free verse. That can come later. The first step, whether you're an adult, a child, or an adult with a child, is to dive in and see what works for you.

There is lots of poetry and information available on the web, and that's a fine place to start. There are also many great anthologies of children's poetry available. A small selection of both are listed below (but know that much more is available in both categories!).