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