The Poetry Friday Anthology

If you are looking for age appropriate poetry to share with your students, check out this new anthology ed. by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong.  It contains one poem a week for 39 weeks for each grade level, K-5.  Poems the kids can relate to, current, challenging, and engaging.  Poems for sharing and to provoke conversation about themes and language. 

The poets in this book are: Joy Acey, Arnold Adoff, Jaime Adoff, Kathi
Appelt, Jeannine Atkins, Brod Bagert, Carmen T. Bernier-Grand, Robyn Hood Black,
Susan Taylor Brown, Joseph Bruchac, Jen Bryant, Leslie Bulion, Stephanie
Calmenson, Deborah Chandra, Cynthia Cotten, Kristy Dempsey, Graham Denton,
Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Margarita Engle, Betsy Franco, Carole Gerber, Charles
Ghigna, Joan Bransfield Graham, John Grandits, Nikki Grimes, Lorie Ann Grover,
Monica Gunning, Mary Lee Hahn, Avis Harley, David L. Harrison, Terry Webb
Harshman, Juanita Havill, Georgia Heard, Esther Hershenhorn, Sara Holbrook,
Carol-Ann Hoyte, Patricia Hubbell, Jacqueline Jules, Bobbi Katz , X. J. Kennedy,
Michele Krueger, Julie Larios, Irene Latham, JonArno Lawson, Gail Carson Levine,
Constance Levy, Debbie Levy, J. Patrick Lewis, George Ella Lyon, Guadalupe
Garcia McCall, Heidi Mordhorst, Kenn Nesbitt, Lesléa Newman, Linda Sue Park, Ann
Whitford Paul, Gregory Pincus, Jack Prelutsky, Mary Quattlebaum, Heidi Bee
Roemer, Michael J. Rosen, Deborah Ruddell, Laura Purdie Salas, Michael Salinger,
Ken Slesarik, Eileen Spinelli, Susan Marie Swanson, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, Lee
Wardlaw, Charles Waters, April Halprin Wayland, Carole Boston Weatherford,
Steven Withrow, Allan Wolf, Janet Wong, and Jane Yolen.

The book is available from Amazon for $29.99 in paperback, $9.99 in Kindle, and $3.99 if you just want to buy one grade level.  But I wouldn’t recommend that as teachers may want to browse other grade levels to find poems that fit with their classroom units. 

Sharing poetry is a fabulous way to get kids thinking, reading, and writing.  This anthology is fresh and fun, a good place to start for students and teachers who are looking for words and ideas to share.