Poetry Books - Reading List by Lucinda Jacob & Sarah Webb
Suggested Reading for Adults
A short selection of books about poetry, creativity or teaching writing
What is Poetry? By Michael Rosen Walker, 2016
To Rhyme or Not to Rhyme by Sandy Brownjohn, Hodder and Stoughton, 1994
52 Ways of Looking at a Poem by Ruth Padel, Vintage, 2004
Real-World Writers: A Handbook for Teaching Writing with 7 – 11 Year Olds by Ross Young and Felicity Ferguson, Routledge, 2021 (Full of practical advice – aimed at teachers)
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Bloomsbury, 2015 (Not about poetry as such but the best book about creativity and the creative life that I’ve ever read – Sarah)
How to Write Poems by Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Matt Robertson
Bloomsbury, 2017 (For children but a great starter guide for adults too!)
Recommended Books for Young Readers
Rhyming or Rhythmic Picture Books
How to be a Lion by Ed Vere, Doubleday, 2018
Be Wild, Little One by Olivia Hope, illustrated by Daniel Egnéus, Bloomsbury, 2022
Poetry Collections for Younger Children
Here’s a Little Poem: A First Book of Poetry Edited by Jane Yolen with Andrew Fusek Peters, Illustrated by Polly Dunbar, Walker Books 2007
A Sailor Went to Sea, Sea, Sea: Favourite Rhymes from an Irish Childhood
Edited by Sarah Webb, illustrated by Steve McCarthy, The O’Brien Press
Poetry Collections Age 8/9+
I am the Wind: Irish Poems for Children Everywhere
Edited by Lucinda Jacob and Sarah Webb, illustrated by Ashwin Chacko, Little Island 2023
Something Beginning with P
Edited by Seamus Cashman, Illustrated by Corrina Askin and Alan Clarke
O’Brien Press, 2008 (paperback)
I Am the Seed That Grew the Tree: A Nature Poem for Every Day of the Year
Selected by Fiona Waters, illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon Nosy Crow 2018
Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright: An Animal Poem for Every Day of the Year
Selected by Fiona Waters, illustrated by Britta Teckentrup, Nosy Crow 2020
Poems from a Green and Blue Planet, Selected by Sabrina Mahfouz, illustrated by Aaron Cushley, Hodder, 2019
A World Full of Poems: Inspiring Poetry for Children, Selected by Sylvia M. Vardell, illustrated by Sonny Ross, Penguin Random House 2020
And Everything Will Be Glad to See You: Poems by Women and Girls, Selected by Emma Risbridger, illustrated by Anna Shepeta Nosy Crow, 2022
A Poem for Every Day of the Year, Edited by Allie Esiri, illustrated by Zanna Goldhawk, Macmillan Children’s Books, 2017
Single Poet Collections
Age 8/9+
Winter Bees and Other Poems of the Cold By Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Rick Allen, Clarion Books, 2014
Poetry for Young People By Carl Sandburg (various illustrators
Sterling Juvenile, 2008
Hopscotch in the Sky by Lucinda Jacob
Little Island, 2017
Cloud Soup Poems by Kate Wakeling, illustrated by Elina Braslina
The Emma Press, 2021
Let’s Chase Stars Together: Poems to Lose Yourself In by Matt Goodfellow
Bloomsbury, 2022
Poetry Comics by Grant Snider
Chronicle Books, 2024