Next month (April) is National Poetry Month. Do you ever try to share poetry with your kids? Some poetry is great for kids and others are harder to get them interested in. Today I am going to share two books to share a bit of poetry and hopefully help develop a love of poetry with your kids. The first is from a Poetry for Kids series and the bonus for us is it is about a Massachusetts poet. Hazel's class is looking at the history of Massachusetts currently and has a project to study someone or something from the history. Hazel however did not choose Emily Dickinson liked I hoped. She chose Susan B. Anthony, so we are learning a lot about women's suffrage right now. However we did take time out to read Poetry for Kids: Emily Dickinson edited by Susan Snively, PhD and illustrated by Christine Davenier.
This book shares poems by Emily Dickinson with beautiful illustrations providing visions to help children understand the poetry. I also love that there are lists of some of the harder words with a definition for the child to understand the poem even more.
The poems are divided by seasons of the year. I really love how they did the extras to help children understand these beautiful poems and enjoy them. At the end of the book there is a section entitled What Emily Was Thinking. It explains the general meaning of each poem in a couple of sentences. Of course there is more that can be said about each poem, but for an introduction to poetry this is wonderful. I love how easy this book makes it for kids to learn and appreciate a bit of Emily Dickinson's poetry. The one downfall I have is that the the titles are written in cursive. Hazel is able to read most cursive now, but has not officially learned it and struggles occasionally. Otherwise I think this is a great book for anyone wanting to introduce Emily Dickinson's work and/or poetry to younger kids.
Our second book was just released this month. It is Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets by Kwame Alexander with Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth and illustrated by Ekua Holmes. This book has poems written to celebrate famous poets including Emily Dickinson, e.e. cummings, Maya Angelou, Rumi, Chief Dan George, and several more. The poems relate to the poet and or his/her poetry. Each has a colorful illustration to help the poems come alive.
