Ways to Encourage Kids to Love Poetry

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Here are several ways to ensure that children continue to love poetry as they get older.

• Keep in mind that children have different tastes in poetry, and allow them to help you select the poems to share with the class. (Generally, avoid overly sentimental or abstract poems, which appeal more to adults.)
• Ask children to recite favorite poems that they have memorized. (Even then, they should be allowed to have the poem written on a card in case they get nervous and forget.)
• Encourage volunteers to share poetry they have written, and post poems only with children's permission.
• Ask children to respond to poetry, but avoid picking each line apart, which kills the listener's enjoyment.
• Occasionally analyze a component of a poem to demonstrate the poet's techniques, but avoid analyzing each stanza of each poem, which becomes drudgery.
• Allow listeners to express their own interpretations because a poem will mean something a little different to each listener.
• Share poetry regularly in small measures. Brief daily or weekly experiences with poetry are preferable to a monthlong unit, which makes children weary of the topic.
• Keep a variety of poetry books available at all times.

Have you ever thought of encouraging reluctant readers to read poetry? It is an excellent genre for children who have limited reading ability, or who simply do not like to read. The minimal amount of print on each page of poetry is not as overwhelming as a page of prose. Poet Janet S. Wong explains that "when they look at a poem of mine, a short poem, they see all that white space around it, and it's not intimidating. It doesn't scare them. They look at it and say, `That's only ten lines. I can read that' " (Yokota & Sanderson, 2000, p. 58). Wong tells of a thirteen-year-old girl who read one of her books of poetry in an hour. The girl's grandmother said it was the first time she had ever read a whole book.

In selecting poems for all children, look for those that involve a universal experience or message, written both on the emotional level and on the intellectual level of the listeners. As for the forms of poetry, children often say they prefer poems that rhyme. In particular, they like limericks, narrative poems, and lyric poems that are funny or about familiar experiences. It has been my experience that their least popular forms of poetry are unrhymed poems and haiku, as well as poems that are overly sentimental or abstract.

A list of books that children might enjoy follows.

Limericks

• Ciardi, John. The Hopeful Trout and Other Limericks. Illus. Susan Meddaugh. Houghton Mifflin, 1992.
• Jacobs, Frank (Ed.). Loony Limericks. Dover, 1999.
• Kennedy, X. J. Uncle Switch: Loony Limericks. Illus. John O'Brien. Simon & Schuster, 1997.
• Lear, Edward. A Book of Nonsense. Everyman's Library, 1846/1992.
• Livingston, Myra Cohn (Ed.). Lots of Limericks. Illus. Rebecca Perry. Simon & Schuster, 1991.

Narrative Poetry

• Denarski, Diane Taylor. Ozark Story-Poems. August House, 1981.
• Harrison, Michael (Ed.). The Oxford Book of Story Poems. Oxford University Press, 1990.
• Hesse, Karen. The Stone Lamp: Eight Stories of Hanukkah through History.
• Kurtz, Jane. River Friendly, River Wild. Illus. Neil Brennan. Simon & Schuster, 2000.
• Wong, Janet S. Minn and Jake. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003.

Humorous Poetry and verse

• Larrick, Nancy (Ed.). Piping Down the Valleys Wild: A Merry Mix of Verse for All Ages. Illus. Ellen Raskin. Yearling, 1999.
• Lee, Dennis. Dinosaur Dinner (with a Slice of Alligator Pie). Illus. Debbie Tilley. Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.
• Lesynski, Loris. Dirty Dog Boogie. Annick, 1999.
• Perry, Andrea. Here's What You Do When You Can't Find Your Shoe. Illus. Alan Snow. Simon & Schuster, 2003.
• Prelutsky, Jack. The Gargoyle on the Roof. Illus. Peter Sis. Greenwillow, 1999.
• Shields, Carol Diggory. Lunch Money and Other Poems about School. Illus. Paul Meisel. Dutton, 1995.
• Shortsleeve, Kevin. 13 Monsters Who Should Be Avoided. Illus. Michael Austin. Peachtree, 1998.
• Silverstein, Shel. Falling Up. HarperCollins, 1996.
• Silverstein, Shel. A Light in the Attic. Harper & Row, 2002a.
• Silverstein, Shel. Where the Sidewalk Ends. HarperCollins, 2002b.

Surely one of the best loved authors of humorous verse for children is the versatile Shel Silverstein—poet, author, illustrator, and song lyricist. His poems have been described as "mischievous and charmingly tasteless." Some adults believe his work is unsuitable for children, claiming much of it is risqué or presents poor role models. However, this has not prevented children of several generations from reading his books and loving the way he makes them laugh. I find his work clever and uproariously funny. Read the poem that follows—which I selected because it has been attacked by some parents and educators—and make your own judgment.

They've Put a Brassiere on the Camel

They've put a brassiere on the camel,

She wasn't dressed proper, you know.

They've put a brassiere on the camel

So that her humps wouldn't show.

And they're making other respectable plans,

They're even insisting the pigs should wear pants,

They'll dress up the ducks if we give them the chance

Since they've put a brassiere on the camel.

They've put a brassiere on the camel,

They claim she's more decent this way.

They've put a brassiere on the camel,

The camel had nothing to say.

They squeezed her into it, I'll never know how,

They say that she looks more respectable now,

Lord knows what they've got in mind for the cow,

Since they've put a brassiere on the camel. (Silverstein, 2002a, p. 166)