If you've been following this blog, you already know that celebrated authors you never expected to write for kids have done so, with delightful results. This post is a continuation of parts 1 and 2, this time about books of rhymes for young readers.
In addition to some of the verse-containing books mentioned in the two previous posts, what follows are poetry books for children written by notable poets (or by novelists crossing over).
A LIST TO SAVOR
Brodsky, Joseph, Discovery (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999). All ages. A picture-book poem that celebrates America before and after it was "discovered," and the spirit of discovery itself.
Ciardi, John, The Hopeful Trout and Other Limericks (Houghton Mifflin, 1992). All ages. This volume includes forty preposterous limericks. (Also: I Met a Man, Fast and Slow, and Doodle Soup.)
Dickey, James, Bronwen, the Traw, and the Shape-Shifter: A Poem in Four Parts (Harcourt, 1986). Ages 5-10. A long, lyrical poem based on stories Dickey told his daughter when she was three and four.
Dickinson, Emily, A Brighter Garden (Philomel, 1990). All ages. Twenty-three illustrated poems that explore the seasons.
--Dickinson: Poetry for Young People, edited by Frances Schoonmaker Bolin (Sterling, 1994). Ages 7-12. This is a collection of some of Dickinson's more famous yet accessible poems, including "Hope Is the Thing with Feathers." Difficult words are explained at the bottoms of pages.
Eliot, T. S., Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (Harcourt, 1982). All ages. Kids will enjoy your reading aloud these appealing poems about the personalities and antics of particular cats (widely known due to the long-running musical based on this volume, Cats).
--Growltiger's Last Stand and Other Poems (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1990). All ages. A picture-book version of three poems from Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.
Field, Edward, Magic Words (Gulliver, 1998). Ages 4-9. Poems based on Inuit creation stories.
Frost, Robert, You Come Too: Favorite Poems for Young Readers (Henry Holt, 1987). All ages. Frost himself selected these poems as especially suitable for young people. Many have to do, at least in part, with nature, such as "The Road Not Taken."
--Poetry for Young People: Robert Frost, edited by Gary D. Schmidt (Sterling, 1994). Ages 7-12. Each of the poems in this collection is followed by a simple "explanation," provided by the editor.
Klein, A. M., Doctor Dwarf & Other Poems for Children (Quarry Press, 1989). All ages. Written for the poet's children, these poems concern Jewish history and stories.
Nash, Ogden, Ogden Nash's Zoo (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1987). All ages. Funny verses about a variety of animals, some unique to Nash ("Long-winded storytellers flinch/If I bring up the three-toed grynch").
Plath, Sylvia, The Bed Book (Harper Junior Books, 1989). Ages 4-8. Imaginative poems about all kinds of odd sleeping places, written for the bedtime entertainment of the poet's own children.
Service, Robert W., The Shooting of Dan McGrew (David R. Godine, 1995). All ages. This classic read-aloud poem is set in the time of the Alaskan Gold Rush. Service was known as "Canada's Kipling," and the rhythms in this poem make it easy to see why. (Also: The Cremation of Sam McGee.)
Stein, Gertrude, The World Is Round (North Point Press, 1988). Ages 8 and up. Stein's only children's book, which features idiosyncratic punctuation and a childlike approach to reality, concerns nine-year-old Rose and her search for self.
Stevenson, Robert Louis, My Shadow (David R. Godine, 1989). Ages 2-5. Colorful illustrations turn this poem from Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses into a picture book.
Updike, John, A Child's Calendar (Knopf, 1965). Ages 4 and up. Simple, rhyming poems about the months. (Also: The Magic Flute, The Ring, and Bottom's Dream.)
ADDENDUM
Once you start noticing (or collecting, as I did) such kid-oriented works by well known authors of adult books, you'll notice them everywhere. (Pay attention to that page near the start of a novel where publishers list the author's previous works.) Here are some more to look for:
Margaret Atwood, Up in the Tree; Anna's Pet; For the Birds; Princess Prunella and the Purple Peanut
Clive Barker, The Thief of Always; Abarat
Pearl S. Buck, The Water-Buffalo Children and The Dragon Fish
Peter Carey, The Big Bazoohley
Michael Chabon, Summerland
Roddy Doyle, The Giggler Treatment
Louise Erdrich, The Birchbark House
William Faulkner, The Wishing Tree
Neil Gaiman, Coraline
Faye Gibbons, Mountain Wedding
Carl Hiaasen, Hoot
Robert A. Heinlein, Citizen of the Galaxy
Shirley Jackson, 9 Magic Wishes
Garrison Keillor, Cat, You Better Come Home
Jonathan Kellerman, Daddy, Can You Touch the Sky?
Maxine Kumin, 17 books for children plus several with poet Anne Sexton
Alison Lurie, Clever Gretchen & Other Forgotten Folk Tales; The Heavenly Zoo; Fabulous Animals
W. Somerset Maugham, Princess September and the Nightingale
Lorrie Moore, The Forgotten Helper
Howard Norman, The Girl Who Dreamed Only Geese
Joyce Carol Oates, Come Meet Muffin!
Chaim Potok, The Tree of Here
Reynolds Price, A Perfect Friend
Francine Prose, Leopold, the Liar of Leipzig; The Demons' Mistake: A Story from Chelm
Anna Quindlen, The Tree That Came to Stay
Mordecai Richler, Jacob Two-Two's First Spy (and two other adventures)
Theodore Roethke, Party at the Zoo
George Sand, The Mysterious Tale of Gentle Jack and Lord Bumblebee
May Sarton, A Walk Through the Woods
Lynne Sharon Schwartz, The Four Questions
Muriel Spark, The Very Fine Clock
Elizabeth Spires, The Mouse of Amherst
William Stafford, The Animal That Drank Up Sound
Frank R. Stockton, The Griffin and the Minor Canon
May Swenson, Poems to Solve; More Poems to Solve
Anne Tyler, Tumble Tower
Leon Uris, Tales from Forever Island
Voltaire, The Dog and the Horse
(c) 2010 by Susan K. Perry
* For Part 1 of this series, click here.
* For Part 2, click here.
