
Rhyming picture books. Poem collections and anthologies. Novels in verse. Limericks, poetic stanzas, tongue twisters, and rhymes. Find all of that and more in this list of recommended reads for national poetry month.
Click the linked titles to reserve a copy to pick up at the library.
Picture Books





Surf’s Up (2015) by Kwame Alexander
Overground Railroad (2020) by Lesa Cline-Ransome
Full, Full, Full of Love (2003) by Trish Cooke
If I Was the Sunshine (2019) by Julie Fogliano
Among a Thousand Fireflies (2016) by Helen Frost





Imagine (2018) by Juan Felipe Herrera
Homemade Love (2002) by Bell Hooks
Child of the Universe (2020) by Ray Jayawardhana
Black Is a Rainbow Color (2020) by Angela Joy
Ohana Means Family (2020) by Ilima Loomis





Fancy Nancy: Poet Extraordinaire! (2010) by Jane O’Connor
And the People Stayed Home (2020) by Kitty O’Meara
Bright Brown Baby: A Treasury (2021) by Andrea Davis Pinkney
A New Green Day (2020) by Antoinette Portis
All Welcome Here (2020) by James Preller





The Great Realization (2020) by Tomos Roberts
The Nest that Wren Built (2020) by Randi Sonenshine
The Best Worst Poet Ever (2020) by Lauren Stohler
Sweet People Are Everywhere (2021) by Alice Walker
The Day You Begin (2018) by Jacqueline Woodson
Easy Nonfiction





The Last Straw: Kids vs. Plastics (2021) by Susan Hood
The Stuff of Stars (2018) by Marion Dane Bauer
Dear Treefrog (2021) by Joyce Sidman
Hi, Koo! : A Year of Seasons (2014) by Jon J. Muth
On Wings of Words: The Extraordinary Life of Emily Dickinson (2020) by Jennifer Berne





Snow Birds (2020) by Kirsten Hall
Just Like Me (2020) by Vanessa Brantley-Newton
Guess Who, Haiku! (2016) by Deanna Caswell
A Place Inside of Me: A Poem to Heal the Heart (2020) by Zetta Elliott
Poems from When We Were Very Young (2021) by A. A. Milne
Juvenile Nonfiction





Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets (2017) by Kwame Alexander with Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth
A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms (2005) selected by Paul B. Janeczko
Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices (1988) by Paul Fleischman
Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat (2008) edited by Nikki Giovanni
Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance (2021) by Nikki Grimes





Cast Away: Poems for Our Time (2020) by Naomi Shihab Nye
Hard-Boiled Bugs for Breakfast: And Other Tasty Poems (2021) by Jack Prelutsky
Science Verse (2004) by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith
Follow the Recipe: Poems About Imagination, Celebration, & Cake (2020) by Marilyn Singer
When Green Becomes Tomatoes (2016) by Julie Fogliano





One Leaf Rides the Wind: Counting in a Japanese Garden (2005) by Celeste Davidson Mannis
Jazz Day: The Making of a Famous Photograph (2016) by Roxane Orgill
Wet Cement: A Mix of Concrete Poems (2016) by Bob Raczka
Bookspeak! : Poems About Books (2011) by Laura Purdie Salas
Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes (2002) by Roald Dahl
Biographies


Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks (2020) by Suzanne Slade
Jump Back, Paul: The Life and Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar (2015) by Sally Derby
Juvenile Fiction




Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids (2021) edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Black Boy Joy (2021) edited by Kwame Mbalia
Unbound: A Novel in Verse (2016) by Ann E. Burg
Love that Dog (2001) by Sharon Creech




Inside Out & Back Again (2011) by Thanhha Lai
On the Horizon (2020) by Lois Lowry
The Moon Within (2019) by Aida Salazar
Other Words for Home (2019) by Jasmine Warga
Juvenile Intermediate Fiction & Graphic Novels




Hate that Cat (2008) by Sharon Creech
Stella Endicott and the Anything-Is-Possible Poem (2020) by Kate DiCamillo
The Poet’s Dog (2016) by Patricia MacLachlan
Ham Helsing (2021) by Rich Moyer
Audiobooks





The Crossover (2014) by Kwame Alexander
Booked (2016) by Kwame Alexander
Garvey’s Choice (2017) by Nikki Grimes
The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary (2016) by Laura Shovan
Where the Sidewalk Ends (2000) by Shel Silverstein