Thanks to everyone who joined me at the Nerdy Book Club last night. What began as an idea to encourage people to teach poetry during National Poetry Month grew into a full-on event when my Nerdy friends invited me to post the live video on their Facebook page. Wow!

In case you missed it, I’ll try to embed the video at the bottom of this post.

As promised, here is a list of some of the books I recommended in the video. Plus a few extras. These are all poetry books, except where noted.

Find this deliciously creepy book at Indiebound.

Extending Your Onomatopoeia Lesson:

The Song Shoots Out of My Mouth: A Celebration of Music, Jaime Adoff
The Louds Move in!, Carolyn Crimi (non-poetry picture book)
Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat, ed. Nikki Giovanni
The Raven, illus. Ryan Price
Forest Has a Song, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater
When Louis Armstrong Taught Me Scat, Muriel Harris Weinstein

Also Mentioned:

Once Upon a Poem: Favorite Poems that Tell Stories (Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky” is in this anthology)
Poe: Stories and Poems, adapted by graphic novelist Gareth Hinds
Love to Langston, Tony Medina
I and I Bob Marley, Tony Medina
Polka Bats and Octopus Slacks, by wordplay master Calef Brown
Mirror Mirror, Marilyn Singer
Echo Echo, Marilyn Singer

Books with Poetry Writing Prompts:

The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary (you’ll find the sound riddle prompt that goes with last night’s lesson on page 240).
Gone Fishing, Tamera Will Wissinger
The Poetry Friday anthology series, Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong

What Else Was on My Shelf?:
Some of the books I use for my poetry residencies…

Falling Down the Page: A Book of List Poems, ed. Georgia Heard
Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building, Christy Hale (great example of concrete poetry)
Sports Pages, Arnold Adoff
Love that Dog, Sharon Creech (verse novel)
Neighborhood Odes, Gary Soto
Poetry Speaks Who I Am, ed. Elise Paschen (my favorite anthology for middle schoolers)

A Limited List of Other Favorite Poetry Books:
(I’ll come back and add a screen shot of my bookshelves later)

I Am the Dog, I Am the Cat, Donald Hall (great for teaching opposite poems)
A Bad Case of the Giggles, ed. Bruce Lansky

Additional Resources:

March 31 Poetry Friday round-up at The Poem Farm
Laura’s Shoe Odes Workshop at Woven Tale Press
Laura’s Persona Poem Workshop at Today’s Little Ditty
and … in case you need to make a case for poetry at your school, here is my Baltimore Sun op-ed piece, “Does poetry have a place in the Common Core?”