NPM Day 29 & Slice of Life: Poems About Books

I bring you four delightful anthologies compiled by the king of poetry (crowned by me in my NPM project of 2017), Lee Bennett Hopkins. Reading always tops my list of hobbies and since poetry also figures on that list of diversions, poems about books combine both interests. 

Jumping Off Library Shelves: A Book of Poems is filled with poems to love. Charming illustrations by Jane Manning bring each poem to life. I couldn't narrow it down to one favorite, so I'll mention two, but really you'll want to read the entire book. Joan Bransfield Graham's "Librarian" (p. 18) captures the love of a reader for the librarian who becomes a friend.  Kristin O'Connell George captures the joy of reading with an animal buddy in "Reading with Riley" (p. 26).

Wonderful Words: Poems About Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening is filled with glorious poems from poets of today and dead poets (including Emily Dickinson and Carl Sandburg). Vivid illustrations by Karen Barbour accompany each poem. "I Am The Book" (p. 18) by Tom Robert Shields shows how books can be our friends through every season.   

I Am the Book (which also includes Shield's poem) has colorful illustrations by Yayo that invite us into each poem. My favorite poem in this book is by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater and is titled simply, "Book" (p. 29). If you don't know Amy's site, The Poem Farm, do not pass go or collect $200, simply go straight to this marvelous repository of all things poetic. (I crowned Amy the Queen of Poetry in my 2017 NPM Project.)

Here's a pic of Amy and me at NCTE 2018. In addition to being a great poet, 

she gives the best hugs ever!

Good Books, Good Times! is filled with poems about the joys of reading illustrated with Harvey Stevenson's watercolor paintings. The book opens with a favorite poem by Karla Kuskin, "Being Lost." The final four lines sum up any book lover's favorite place to be.

"I linger alone

In a place of my own

Lost

In a book."