Bodden, Valerie  Finding the Rhyme in a Poem
Illustrated by Monique Felix
Gr. K–3     24 pp.     Creative Education

Bodden, Valerie Picturing Words in a Poem
Illustrated by Monique Felix
Gr. K–3     24 pp.     Creative Education

Bodden, Valerie  Poking Fun in a Poem
Illustrated by Etienne Delessert
Gr. K–3     24 pp.     Creative Education

Bodden, Valerie Who Is a Poet?
Illustrated by Monique Felix and Etienne Delessert
Gr. K–3     24 pp.     Creative Education

Write Me a Poem series. This generally accessible series introduces the concept of writing poetry (Who) and highlights techniques poets use to convey images (Picturing), emotions (Poking Fun), and sound (Rhyme). Excerpts from classic poems (often with sophisticated vocabulary) serve as examples. Full-page illustrations, alternately elegant and cartoonish, match the feelings of the poems. Writing activity appended. Reading list, websites. Glos., ind.
Subjects: Poetry; Poets; Humorous poetry; English language

Fogliano, Julie  When Green Becomes Tomatoes: Poems for All Seasons
Gr. K–3, 4–6     56 pp.     Roaring Brook/Porter

Illustrated by Julie Morstad. This collection of nearly fifty poems begins and ends on "march 20" with a blue bird on a flowering tree branch (and with the same poem). In between are poems for days throughout the year. Morstad's gouache and pencil-crayon pictures and Fogliano's poetry are delicately precise, gracefully and economically expressed, and filled with the wonder of genuine childhood experience.
Subjects: Poetry; Seasons

Latham, Irene  Fresh Delicious: Poems from the Farmers' Market
Gr. K–3     32 pp.     Boyds/Wordsong

Illustrated by Mique Moriuch. Twenty-one poems about various fruits, vegetables, and other farmers' market items offer unconventional literary images, such as how potatoes are "crooked as a 'come here' finger," and how okra are "mouse-sized swords." The childlike perspectives of the poems are further upheld by simple, playful images rendered in acrylic and collage. Educators with school gardens may appreciate the book's cross-curriculum opportunities. Recipes are appended.
Subjects: Poetry; Markets; Farms and farm life; Food; Fruits and vegetables; Cookery

Lauer, Brett Fletcher and Melnick, Lynn  Please Excuse This Poem: 100 New Poets for the Next Generation
Middle school, high school     289 pp.     Viking

One hundred contemporary poems meander through topics and styles and, for the most part, ignore conventions of form. The best of these poems pack punches with raw handling of timely issues, such as Patricia Lockwood's uncomfortably humorous "Rape Joke." What will appeal to teens most about this anthology, and what holds it together, is its gritty, unapologetic sensibility. "About the poets" section appended.
Subjects: Poetry Collections

Raczka, Bob  Wet Cement: A Mix of Concrete Poems
Gr. 4–6     48 pp.     Roaring Brook

Graphic design meets riddle meets visual wordplay in Raczka's collection of sturdy and joyful perspectives on the ordinary stuff of the world. Each offering consists of a one-word title and a more extended poem. The poems themselves variously involve reading aloud, turning the page upside-down, and in one case, reading in a mirror. An entertaining chance to dig deep into words and their meanings.
Subjects: Poetry; Poetry—Concrete poems

From the March 2017 issue of Nonfiction Notes from the Horn Book.

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