By Deanna Day-Wiff, Washington State University, Vancouver, WA
Poetry is all around us and is fun to read aloud and share with children of all ages. Poetry builds literacy skills with its figurative language, different forms and structures as well as its rhythm and rhyme. This past year I had the honor of serving on the NCTE Notable Poetry Books and Verse Novels Committee. I read over 300 titles—individual poems, anthologies, narrative poems, biographical poems and verse novels. The committee discussed the differences between poetry and prose and then chose 30 titles that reflected the Notable Poetry Books Criteria. This WOW Dozen focuses on some of the books that were considered but did not make the 2022 NCTE Notable Poetry Books and Verse Novels list. Nevertheless, children and adolescents will still enjoy hearing or reading them. Why not bring poetry to life in your classroom by sharing more of it in March, April for National Poetry Month and every day?
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Your Heart, My Sky by Margarita Engle, 9781534464964, Atheneum, 2021.
Liana and Amado are starving and struggling to find food in Cuba, yet fall in love as they nurture an illegal vegetable garden.
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Hello, Earth! Poems to Our Planet by Joyce Sidman & Miren Asiain Lora (il.), 9780802855282, Eerdmans, 2021.
Twenty-two poems describe our beautiful Earth, noting the size, age, layers, plate tectonics, gravity, oceans, ecosystems, water cycles & species.
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What About Will by Ellen Hopkins, 9780593108642, PRH, 2021.
Two brothers struggle after their parents’ divorce—one has a football injury & becomes addicted to pain meds—while the other covers up his brother’s secrets.
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Starfish by Lisa Fipps, PRH, 9781984814500, 2021.
In this Printz Honor book, Ellie is relentlessly fat-shamed by her family, particularly her mother, & her schoolmates, until she is brave enough to “starfish,” claiming her right to take up space & be heard.
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Sounds Like School Spirit by Meg Fleming & Lucy Ruth Cummins (il.), 9780063029590, PRH, 2021.
This call and response picturebook is perfect for inviting primary children to participate & read aloud poetry.
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Roar-chestra! A Wild Story of Musical Words by Robert Heidbreder & Dusan Petricic (il.), 9781525302749, Kids Can Press, 2021.
With each musical term introduced, a group of animals “Quickly, swiftly—race, run, fly!” across the pages, illustrating the different meanings of the words.
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Outside, You Notice by Erin Alladin & Andrea Blinick (il.), 9781419742385, Pajama Press, 2021.
When we go outside we notice our natural world, such as, “Birds singing / bees buzzing / Squirrels running / Make up one big quiet.”
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Mother Goose Girls and Boys Come Out to Play by Tracey Campbell Pearson (il.), 9780823447138, PRH, 2021.
Mother Goose invites children to leave their beds to gather with friends & characters—Humpty Dumpty, Jack & Jill, & Old King Cole—for a delicious pudding feast.
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Have You Ever Seen a Flower? by Shawn Harris, 9781452182704, Chronicle, 2021.
In this Caldecott Honor book, colorful illustrations highlight numerous questions such as: “Have you ever seen a flower using nothing but your nose?” or “Have you ever felt a flower?”
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Goodnight Ganesha by Nadia Salomon & Poonam Mistry (il.), 9780593203613, Viking, 2021.
Getting ready for bed and saying goodnight are much easier with grandparents & beautiful rhymes.
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Stop that Poem! by Eric Ode & Jieting Chen (il.), 9781684642236, Kane Miller, 2021.
In this poetry adventure, children playfully create poems that soar like a kite, settle like birds on a wire or scatter like pouring rain.
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Amber & Clay by Laura Amy Schulitz, 9781536201222, Candlewick, 2021.
In ancient Greece, the lives of two spiritual twins, Rhaskos & Melisto, intertwine when one of them dies and becomes a ghost, & the other seeks freedom from his enslavement.
WOW Dozen features a list of 12 global books for children and adolescents around a theme, topic, issue or personal favorites. Each Dozen consists of ten newly-published titles with two older “must have” books. Please share or recommend additional books that fit the theme in the comments section or on social media using #WOWDozen. Use the printer icon in the upper left corner of this post to print or save this list as a PDF.
- Themes: Amber & Clay, Andrea Blinick, Deanna Day-Wiff, Dusan Petricic, Ellen Hopkins, Eric Ode, Erin Alladin, Goodnight Ganesha, Have You Ever Seen a Flower, Hello Earth, Jieting Chen, Joyce Sidman, Laura Amy Schulitz, Lisa Fipps, Lucy Ruth Cummins, Margarita Engle, Meg Fleming, Miren Asiain Lora, Mother Goose Girls and Boys Come Out To Play, Nadia Salomon, Outside You Notice, Poonam Mistry, Roar-chestra, Robert Heidbreder, Shawn Harris, Sounds Like School Spirit, Starfish, Stop that Poem, Tracey Campbell Pearson, What About Will, Your Heart My Sky
- Descriptors: WOW Dozen