Poetry Titles From The Poet's Suitcase Collection



This is a message for teachers. Teachers who teach poetry, Teachers who wish to teach poetry more effectively.

Take a wander through your school's library and take a closer look at the poetry collection.

Have a really good look at the assembled books. Take some books from the shelves and open them and examine the poetry within the covers.

If what you are seeing is a collection of dated, unattractive titles and there doesn't appear to have been any additional texts added to the collection in over a decade -or possibly longer, then it's time to morph into a Poetry Warrior!

Don't get me wrong, there may well be some great poetry hidden away within those tired looking covers. It would be sad not to bring some of that treasure to the attention of your probationary poets. However, it's time to begin agitating for more books to be added to the collection -and fast. Something contemporary. Something more relatable to the many worlds young readers inhabit.

It becomes difficult to grow a love of poetry among young writers without a varied collection of classic and contemporary poetry books for them to pour over. We want them to grow into poetry action figures- and to achieve that aim, requires a a broadly curated collection of books. Immersion in poetry is a pre-requisite to writing poetry. A meagre collection of tired titles will result in a failure to launch.

I am sharing this list of poetry books in the hope that those meagre collections (in some school libraries) can be given an injection of life. 
Good luck Poetry Warriors. I trust and hope you choose to accept this important and rewarding mission!

'You should read at least one hundred poems before you write one.'
Ted Kooser, American Poet


Some Titles From My Poet's Suitcase Collection


These Poetry titles have been curated across many years from my ever expanding collection. It's not the full collection, but it's a start.  Some, sadly may be out of print, but may well be found on-line, or in second hand book shops, where I continually find buried treasure. Happy hunting and collecting!


Bananas In My Ears, Michael Rosen, Walker Books, 2011

Imagine A Night, Sarah L Thomson, Atheneum books, 2003

My Sister’s Hair, Sally Crabtree and Roberta Mathieson, Random House, 2001

The Important Book, Margaret Wise- Brown, Harper Collins, 1977

All the Small Poems and Fourteen More, Valerie Worth, Sunburst Books, 1994

Touch The Poem, Arnold Adoff and Lisa Desimini, Blue Sky Press, 2000

Summer Rain, Ros Moriarty, Allen & Unwin, 2015

Beach House, Deanna Caswell, Chronicle Books, 2003

Some Things Are Scary, Florence Parry Heide, Candlewick Press, 2000

The Tail of The Whale, Ellie Patterson, Meadowwide Children’s Books 2008

Unspun Socks From a Chicken’s Laundry, Spike Milligan, Puffin Books 1981

Jelly Boots, Smelly Boots, Michael Rosen, Bloomsbury, 2016

Vivid- Poems & Notes About Colour, Julie Paschkis, Henry Holt & Company, 2018

The Hypnotiser, Michael Rosen, Andre Deutsch, 1988

Quick Let’s Get Out of Here, Michael Rosen, Andre Deutsch, 1983

Chocolate Cake, Michael Rosen, Puffin books, 2017

Michael Rosen’s Big Book of Bad Things, Michael Rosen, Puffin books, 2010

Michael Rosen’s A to Z- The Best Children’s Poetry Selected by Michael Rosen, Puffin Books, 2009

Untangling Spaghetti, Steven Herrick, University of Queensland, 2009

I’m Just No Good At Rhyming, Chris Harris, Little brown & Company, 2017

Mongrel Doggerel, Elizabeth Honey, Allen & Unwin, 1998

A Paddock of Poems, Max Fatchen, Omnibus Books, 1987

The Kingfisher Book of Comic Verse, Selected by Roger McGough,1986

Nailing The Shadow, Roger McGough, Viking Kestrel, 1987

Tadpoles In The Torrens, Poems for young readers, Edited by Jude Aquilina, Wakefield Press, 2016

The Man From Snowy River, A B Paterson, Collins, 1977

The Dream of the Thylacine, Margaret Wild, Allen &  Unwin, 2011

Poems To Perform, Julia Donaldson, McMillan’s Children’s Books, 2013

You Wait Till I’m Older Than You, Michael Rosen, Puffin books, 1997

The Death of the Hat, Poems Selected by Paul Janeczko, Candlewick Press, 2015

In The Swim, Douglas Florian, Harcourt Brace Books, 1997

Insectopedia, Douglas Florian, Voyager Books, 2002

Poetrees, Douglas Florian, Beach Lane Books, 2010

Comets, Stars, The Moons and Mars, Douglas Florian, Harcourt Books, 2007

Salting The Ocean, 100 poems by young poets, Naomi Shihab- Nye, Greenwillow Books, 2000

Twilight Comes Twice, Ralph Fletcher, Clarion Books, 2017

Hello Harvest Moon, Ralph Fletcher, Clarion Books, 2001

Neighbourhood Odes, Gary Soto, HMH Books, 2005

Joyful Noise, Poems for Two Voices, Paul Fleischman, Harper Trophy, 1988

Waterbombs, Steven Herrick, Jam Roll Press, 1992

Everything All A Once, Steve Camden, McMillan’s Children’s Books, 2018

The Best Ever Book of Funny Poems Chosen by Brian Moses, McMillan’s Children’s Books, 2021
Our Home Is Dirt By Sea- Australian Poems for Australian Kids, Selected by Diane Bates, Walker Books, 2016

Fire, Jackie French, Scholastic, 2014

Sky Scrape/City Scape- Poems of City Life, Selected by Jane Yolen, Wordsong, 1996

If I Were In Charge Of The World, Judith Viorst, Atheneum Books, 1984

A Pocketful of Poems, Nikki Grimes, Clarion Books, 2018

What The Poemster Found, Alan j Wright, Balboa, 2019

I Bet There’s No Broccoli On The Moon, Alan j Wright, Balboa, 2016

Searching For Hen’s Teeth, Alan j Wright, Balboa, 2014

This Poem Is A Nest, Irene Latham, Wordsong, 2020

You Took The Last Bus Home, Brain Bilston, Unbound 2017

Limelight, Solli Raphael, Puffin Books 2018

The One Thing You’d Save, Linda Sue Park, Clarion Books, 2021

Lost Magic, The Very Best of Brian Moses, McMillan Children’s Books, 2016

The Dreaming Tree, Jo Oliver, New Frontier Publishing, 2016

Refugees, Brian Bilston, Palazzo Editions, 2019

Sea Prayer, Khaled Hosseini, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017

To This Day, Shane Koyczan, Walker Books, 2014

A World Full of Poems, Selected by Sylvia Vardell, DK Publishing, 2020

A Is Amazing-Poems About Feelings, Edited by Wendy Cooling, Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, 2012

Poems Out Loud, Various Authors, Penguin Random House, 2019

Imperfect- Poems About Mistakes: An Anthology for Middle Schoolers, Tabatha Yates, Editor, History House Publishers, 2018

 


And finally, I am sharing my ever expanding collection of VERSE Novels.

 

Sister Heart, Sally Morgan, Freemantle Press, 2015

Love That Dog, Sharon Creech, Joanna Cotler Books, 2001

The Poet X Elizabeth Acevedo, Harper Collins 2018

The Art of Taxidermy, Sharon Kernot, The Text Publishing Company, 2018

Pearl Verses The World, Sally Murphy, Walker Books, 2009

Worse Things, Sally Murphy, Walker Books, 2020

Bindi, Kirli Saunders, Magabala Books, 2020

On Track, Kathryn Apel, University of Queensland Press, 2015

Naked Bunyip Dancing Steven Herrick. Allen & Unwin, 2005

Pookie Aleera Is Not My Boyfriend, Steven Herrick, University of Queensland Press, 2012

Another Night In Mullet Town, Steven Herrick, University of Queensland Press, 2016

Locomotion, Jacqueline Woodson, Puffin Books, 2003

Rhyme Schemer, K.A.Holt, Chronicle Books, 2014

The Crossover, Kwame Alexander, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014 Inside

Out & Back Again, Thanha Lai, Harper Collins, 2011

Witness, Karen Hesse, Scholastic, 2001







 


Comments

  1. Susan T.19 July 2021 at 01:39

    Poetry Warriors! Yes. I love this idea. Though I'm not a teacher, my gig as a volunteer (reading aloud picture books to second graders) would allow me to scan the poetry shelves at the school library. This is a good reminder to add in some more poetry books as read-alouds, too, when school starts up again in September.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright21 July 2021 at 14:46

      Thank you Susan. All efforts are welcomed here. I hope your sleuthing of the shelves uncovers some poetry to bring a smile to your face. Poetry read alouds are a joy!

      Delete

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