School Fever is a compilation of poems that Brod Bagert has written about school. It is intended for children and pokes fun at some of the stuff that happens at school. One is about a kid that claims he caught a virus from a computer, another about a super hero that was hired to take care of the school bully. It is a very humorous compilation of poems that would definitely get the children interested in poetry.

Hey You! C’mere A Poetry Slam by Elizabeth Swados is a great book on poetry for students.   This book makes poetry fun and exciting.  The topics of the poems are relatable to students.  The visuals that accompany the poems are a great aid for students to visualize what they poem is saying.  This would be a great book to introduce poetry with vocabulary and themes that students would understand.

This book is a great book for teachers wanting to integrate spanish into thier language. This book entails many poems about the love shared between a mother and her daughter and also a grandmother. I would love to use this book in trying to get my students to use context clues in order to find out the meaning of a word written in spanish as well as forming poems and connecting to a different culture.

Take Me Out of the Bathtub is a great book of poetry/silly songs that children really enjoy.  I bought this book after hearing about Alan Katz in my Language Arts Ped. class.  My children love to hear the silly songs spoken and sung to the tune of their favorite children’s music.  This would be a great investment for anyone wishing to teach young children.

~Heather Chandler

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This is a really fun collection of poems teaching about good manners. The book is very catchy because you sing the poems to the tunes of familiar songs to make the poems easier and more entertaining for young readers to read. I find the book to be very unique and good for those students whom need to learn from a whole different perspective sometimes.

The Random House Book of Poetry for Children was recognized upon its publication in 1983 as an invaluable collection–a modern classic–and it has not since been surpassed. Five hundred poems, selected by poet and anthologist Jack Prelutsky, are divided into broad subject areas such as nature, seasons, living things, children, and home. The poems of Emily Dickinson, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Nikki Giovanni, and Gwendolyn Brooks populate the book’s pages, while Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, Ogden Nash, and Shel Silverstein ensure that the collection delights even the most reluctant readers of rhyme. Playground chants, anonymous rhymes, scary poems, silly verse, and even some sad strains are carefully indexed by title, author, first line, and subject. With illustrations of cheerful, round-faced children and animals on every page, Arnold Lobel (a Caldecott medalist and creator of the Frog and Toad series) unifies the diverse poems to form a satisfying whole; Lobel can draw anything and make it funny–or poignant, if he chooses. This collection, one of the most varied and complete around, will carry any budding poetry lover through childhood and beyond.

I had not intended posting on the book If Not for the Cat by Jack Prelustsky until yesterday afternoon and I see Teresa enjoyed the book as much as I did:).  At the YMCA I am a the 1st grade afterschool counselor and I am big on reading to them everyday in our “quiet time”.  I encourage them to bring me books that they have checked out from their school libraries or any from home that they like.  Yesterday one of my boys brought me this book and wanted me to read it.  I thought it was so neat that he had brought me a poetry book since we were discussing them in this class as well as my 345 class.  The book basically had a haiku in the form of a riddle on each page with excellent pictures.  We had a lot of fun talking about haikus and how they worked. Of course they didn’t know what a haiku was  before then and they thought it sounded so cool that they wanted to learn about.  We were clapping out syllables and guessing the riddles and I think they really enjoyed it, even though is was semi advanced for their age level.  At times I had to explain words to them they had never heard, but they usually guessed the animal in the end.   So, I had a real life experience with this book and give it an A+. 

This is a wonderful book of poems that could be enjoyed by students in any grade.  I think that they particularly appeal to boys.  I think that they are funny and promote interest in poetry.  I don’t think you can really go wrong with Jack Prelutsky though.  I plan on adding it to my collection.

This is a book of collected poetry from Native American cultures. Each of the thirteen moons are represented on the turtles back. The turtle is believed to contain the mystery of the moons and powers each story behind the moons. I loved the poetry and the illustrations were just gorgeous.

      Award winning poet Jack Prelutsky, will delight you with this charming collection of seventeen haiku poems that all have a secret… Within their simple, yet enlightening words these poems will cause you to envision your favorite animal creatures in a whole new way. But, who is who? This is one big, fun riddle within a collection of entertaining poetry. But, don’t worry the answer will be right in front of you all the time! Ted Rand’s beautiful watercolor illustrations make this South Carolina Picture Book Award winner one that you will want for your very own collection.