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Poetry for Children

First off, these aren't just for kids. A good poem has universal appeal, and if it captures a child's imagination it ought to capture an adult's as well. The main difference between "poems for kids" and "poems for adults" is that the former are easier to understand and enjoy at face value.

T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland goes over heads because it's full of allusions and analogies only the well-read are likely to get, whereas Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein is self-contained (though there's plenty more going on beneath the surface for older readers to appreciate). And who can argue that John Donne is easier to understand than A.A. Milne?

Of course, "at face value" doesn't mean there are no hidden meanings in children's poetry. It just means kids don't have to pick them up to be impacted by the poem. At the same time, teaching them to do so from a young age with the poetry they love will give them a huge advantage when they're older and encounter Milton, Frost, and Yeats.

Poetry intended for young readers is often marked by what some consider a juvenile rhyme scheme. Yet organizing thoughts and words in a metrical pattern and making it seem effortless isn't the work of some "kiddie writer," but of a master.

Kindling in children a love of poetry (not just rhymes) is essential for helping them reach their full imaginative potential. Stories are important, but poems impart a sense of wonder and an attitude of curiosity and investigation that mere prose can never accomplish. If Keats could transport grown men and women to other realms, why would we think Grahame, Carroll, or Stevenson couldn't do exactly the same thing for kids?

Readers often forget that poetry is intended to be read aloud. While children can have plenty of fun curled up on the couch with their favorite book of poems (probably mouthing each word silently as they read, deaf to the rest of the world), reading aloud with them opens their ears to the beauty of language, its cadences, its mysticism and enchantment. It'll probably do the same thing for you.

Which brings us back to the first point: poetry for children is also poetry for adults. Nowhere else is the ethos of childhood so perfectly rendered than in poems of this kind, where the happiness, terror and innocence of the young is brought to full light not just in the images and words themselves, but in the very way they're structured on the page and spoken out loud. If you feel lost or dead to the world of childhood, read some of the poetry written to and for kids before adulthood squelches any youthfulness of soul you have left.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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Active Filters: 6th grade (Ages 11-12), In-Stock Books & Materials
Casey at the Bat
by Ernest L. Thayer & Christopher Bing
1st edition from Chronicle Books
for 2nd-6th grade
2001 Caldecott Honor Book
in Oversized Picture Books (Location: PIC-OVER)
$19.99 $10.00 (1 in stock)
Child's Introduction to Poetry
Books for Young Explorers
by Michael Driscoll & Meredith Hamilton
from Black Dog & Leventhal
for 2nd-8th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Child's Introduction to Poetry
Books for Young Explorers
by Michael Driscoll & Meredith Hamilton
First Revised Edition from Black Dog & Leventhal
for 2nd-8th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$19.99
Classic Poetry
by Michael Rosen & Paul Howard
Reprint from Candlewick Press
for 1st-6th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$15.99
Cornstalks: A Bushel of Poems
by James Stevenson
from Avyx, Inc.
for 4th-8th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$8.00 (4 in stock)
Dream Keeper And Other Poems
by Langston Hughes
from Scholastic Inc.
for 5th-9th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Edgar Allen Poe’s Pie
by J. Patrick Lewis
from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
for 2nd-6th grade
in Math Picture Books (Location: MATR-PIC)
$7.99
Favorite Poems for Children
by Holly Pell McConnaughy, editor
from Barnes & Noble
for 1st-6th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Hiawatha
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
1st edition from Puffin Books
Poetry for 4th-8th
in Oversized Picture Books (Location: PIC-OVER)
$8.99 $5.00 (1 in stock)
Highwayman
by Alfred Noyes, illustrated by Charles Mikolaycak
1st edition
for 3rd-8th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
If I Were In Charge of the World and Other Worries
by Judith Viorst, illustrated by Lynne Cherry
from Aladdin Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
If: A Poem by Rudyard Kipling
by Rudyard Kipling, illustrated by Giovanni Manna
from Creative Editions
for 3rd-8th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Joyful Noise
by Paul Fleischman
from HarperCollins
for 2nd-6th grade
1989 Newbery Medal winner
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$6.99
Joyful Noise
by Paul Fleischman
1st edition from HarperCollins
for 4th-6th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Joyful Noise
by Paul Fleischman, illustrated by Eric Beddows
1st edition from Harper & Row
for 4th-6th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Lessons from Nature
by John Bunyan
from Back Home Industries
Lyrical Poems for 3rd-6th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$24.00 $12.00 (1 in stock)
Loony Limericks from Alabama to Wyoming
by Jack Stokes
from Doubleday & Company
for 3rd-6th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Mouse of Amherst
by Elizabeth Spires, Illustrated by Claire A. Nivola
from Scholastic Inc.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
$3.00 (2 in stock)
My America
by Lee Bennett Hopkins
from Scholastic Inc.
for 4th-6th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Once Upon a Poem
by Kevin Crossley-Holland, illustrated by Peter Bailey, Sian Bailey, Carol Lawson, Chris McEwan
from Scholastic Inc.
for 2nd-6th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Out of the Dust
by Karen Hesse
from Scholastic Inc.
Realistic Fiction for 6th-8th grade
1998 Newbery Medal winner
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$8.99 $5.00 (1 in stock)
Out of the Dust
by Karen Hesse
1st edition from Scholastic Inc.
Realistic Fiction for 6th-8th grade
1998 Newbery Medal winner
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Oxford Book of Children's Verse in America
by Donald Hall, ed.
from Oxford University
for 2nd-6th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Oxford Book of Poetry for Children
by Edward Blishen (editor), illustrated by Brian Wildsmith
from Franklin Watts
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Poetry (Location: VIN-POET)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Paul Revere's Ride
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, illustrated by Ted Rand
from Puffin Books
American Poetry for 2nd-6th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$8.99
Poem Stew
by William Cole
from HarperCollins
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$2.50 (1 in stock)
Poems Every Child Should Know
by Mary E. Burt, ed.
from Yesterday's Classics
for Kindergarten-6th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$16.95
Poems to Learn by Heart
by Caroline Kennedy; illustrated by Jon J. Muth
from Disney-Hyperion
for 1st-6th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Poetry for Young People: Edgar Allan Poe
Poetry for Young People
by Edgar Allan Poe
from Scholastic Inc.
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$3.50 (2 in stock)
Poetry for Young People: Walt Whitman
Poetry for Young People
by Walt Whitman, edited by Jonathan Levin, illustrated by Jim Burke
from Sterling Publishing Co.
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Poetry for Young People: Walt Whitman
Poetry for Young People
by Walt Whitman, edited by Jonathan Levin, illustrated by Jim Burke
from Sterling Publishing Co.
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Poetry Speaks to Children w/CD
by Elise Paschen (editor), illustrated by Judy Love, Wendy Rasmussen, Paula Zinngrabe Wendland
from Sourcebooks
for Kindergarten-6th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Reading of Poetry
by William D. Sheldon, Nellie Lyons,, Polly Rouault
from Allyn and Bacon
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Readers & Textbooks (Location: VIN-READ)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Silver Pennies
by Blanche Jennings Thompson, editor; illustrated by Winifred Bromhall
1935 Printing from Macmillan
for 1st-6th grade
in Vintage Poetry (Location: VIN-POET)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Sounds of a Young Hunter
a Sounds of Language Reader
by Edited by Bill Martin Jr.
from Holt, Rinehart and Winston
for 6th-7th grade
in Vintage Readers & Textbooks (Location: VIN-READ)
$3.75 (1 in stock)
Star-Spangled Banner
by Peter Spier
from Yearling
American History for 2nd-6th grade
in Oversized History Books (Location: HISW-OVER)
$10.99
Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages
by Harold Bloom
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 3rd-8th grade
in Short Stories (Location: LIT-ANTH)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Sweet Corn
by James Stevenson
1st edition from Greenwillow Books
for 4th-8th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Talking to the Sun
by Selected by Kenneth Koch and Kate Farrell
from Henry Holt and Company
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Treasury of Verse for School and Home
by M. G. Edgar and Eric Chilman, editors
from Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
for 3rd-8th grade
in Vintage Poetry (Location: VIN-POET)
$30.00 (1 in stock)
Waiting to Waltz
by Cynthia Rylant
from Atheneum
for 1st-7th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$19.99
Where the Sidewalk Ends
by Shel Silverstein
30th Anniversary Edition from HarperCollins
for 4th-6th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$9.50 (1 in stock)
You Come Too
by Robert Frost
from Henry Holt and Company
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$13.99
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