Poetry, but make it fun! Here are the best books about poetry that we read in the past year. Bit by bit, my kids were inspired to write their own!
This post may contain Amazon Affiliate Links. I may earn a few cents on qualifying purchases. Thanks in advance for helping with the costs of running this blog!
This is our poetry book stack from 2024-2025, and it is too good not to share! These were perfect reads for my kids who were ages 7 to 12 at the time. My 12-year old twin boys were not super fond of writing poetry, but neither is the main character in Love That Dog and Hate That Cat (a sequel).
Love That Dog
In Love that Dog, we learn that Jack has lost a beloved dog. And they have to write poetry in school! But through writing in free verse and fun concrete poetry, he slowly processes that loss.
Jack is a very relatable main character for kids who don’t like poetry! The book reveals his inner thoughts that probably mirror that of my children… But Jack slowly comes around to see that poetry is a form of self-expression and way to process emotions. The teacher is also an inspiring character for us homeschool moms.
Walter Dean Myers’ poem, “Love that Boy,” is the inspiration for the title of this book. It’s a joyful work that Jack ends up rewriting to express his feelings about his lost dog. Another poet and poem mentioned is “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams. We had already read a picture book about it, included in my state booklist about New Jersey. In Love That Dog, students are prompted to choose a topic and write their own version of “The Red Wheelbarrow.”
That’s right! I then asked my kids if they could write a poem based on “The Red Wheelbarrow” for their dad’s birthday! We chose something that he liked: his green tractor! It was a fun writing assignment, to write it on a homemade card, decorate it with a picture, and see Dad’s face when he read it.
Other poets introduced in this book are: Robert Frost, William Blake, Valerie Worth, and Arnold Adoff. The poems throughout the book are compiled at the end of the book for easy reference.
From the Publisher: “Love That Dog shows how one boy named Jack finds his voice with the help of a teacher, a pencil, some yellow paper, and of course, a dog. Written as a series of free-verse poems from Jack’s point of view, and with classic poetry included in the back matter, this novel is perfect for kids and teachers, too.
Hate That Cat
Hate that Cat is a sequel to Love that Dog and a continuation of Jack’s story. In this book, we are introduced to more poets and poems, some of them CAT themed!
The beautiful imagery really stood out to me in “The Eagle” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson and “The Tyger” by William Blake . These are great selections for poetry recitation or memorization work.
Other poets mentioned are: William Carlos Williams (again), T.S. Eliot, Edgar Allan Poe, Valerie Worth, and Christopher Stuart. Again, all of the poems throughout the book are compiled at the end of the book for easy reference.
From the Publisher “In Hate That Cat, Jack is only trying to save that fat black cat stuck in the tree by his bus stop—but the cat scratches him instead! At school Miss Stretchberry begins teaching new poems, everything from William Carlos Williams to Valerie Worth to T.S. Eliot.”
Stella Endicott and the Anything-Is-Possible Poem
If your kids have ever read the Mercy Watson series, they will enjoy this book! Stella Endicott and the Anything-Is-Possible Poem is the 5th book in Kate DiCamillo’s Deckawoo Drive series. It can be read alone, without having read the first four books.
This early chapter book highlights this delightful character, Stella Endicott. The story is hilarious and I think your kids will enjoy it as much as mine did! I’ll let you read the publisher’s summary of the storyline below. The Mercy Watson website has a book guide with extension activities. We tried a few of them that appealed to my kids.
From the publisher: “Stella Endicott loves her teacher, Miss Liliana, and she is thrilled when the class is assigned to write a poem. Stella crafts a beautiful poem about Mercy Watson, the pig who lives next door — a poem complete with a metaphor and full of curiosity and courage. But Horace Broom, Stella’s irritating classmate, insists that Stella’s poem is full of lies and that pigs do not live in houses. And when Stella and Horace get into a shouting match in the classroom, Miss Liliana banishes them to the principal’s office. Will the two of them find a way to turn this opposite-of-a-poem day around? In the newest spirited outing in the Deckawoo Drive series by Kate DiCamillo, anything is possible — even a friendship with a boy deemed to be (metaphorically speaking) an overblown balloon.”
The Turtle of Michigan
Oh wait, I have to add one more recent read: The Turtle of Michigan (not pictured above)! We listened to this audiobook on a roadtrip to…you guessed it, Michigan! It’s full of descriptions about life in Ann Arbor during the course of a full year. There are themes of immigration, travel, adaptation to a new country, missing a grandparent, making friends, and, of course, TURTLES.
But there is also poetry! Aref’s teacher gives them assignments, and, by writing poetry, Aref processes these big changes in his life. Throughout the story, we experience Michigan, specifically the Ann Arbor area, through the fun descriptions of an eight-year old. He enjoys making lists of endearing observations in his journal, he writes letters to his grandfather in Oman, and he writes poetry.
It doesn’t come as a surprise to me that the author, Naomi Shihab Nye, is a poet herself and has Arab and American heritage. We read Turtle of Oman last year when we were studying Oman, and it was excellent! Turtle of Michigan can be read independently as a stand-alone story; you do not have to read Turtle of Oman first.
From the publisher: “Aref is excited for his journey to reunite with his father in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Aref makes a friend on an airplane, wonders what Michigan will be like, and starts school in the United States. While he does miss his grandfather, his Sidi, Aref knows that his home in Oman will always be waiting for him.”