The Best Poetry Books for Kids & Teens

April is National Poetry Month and a time to honor this essential and timeless literary style. Poetry has played an integral role in culture and society throughout the centuries. To celebrate National Poetry Month, we want to highlight one of our favorite subcategories of the poetry world, which is poetry for children and teens. Introducing children to poetry and reading it aloud with them offers many benefits and helps them learn about volume, pitch, and inflection when speaking.

Poetry also helps young readers improve their memory, boost their brainpower, and learn to identify speech patterns while they build early literacy skills. It can also positively impact a child's social and emotional learning and offer new ways of thinking about the world around them.

Whether you're looking for poetry books for teens or younger kids, we've collected some of the best books for learning poetry. Read on to see our top picks.

Our Favorite Poetry Books for Kids

Poetry provides children of all ages a healthy outlet for their emotions. Reading poetry aloud in the classroom and at home can foster empathy and trust between readers. Reading poetry books for kids aloud also enhances listening and speaking skills in students while simultaneously encouraging confidence, self-expression, and literary creativity.

Children's poetry books provide engaging passages full of limericks, tongue twisters, rhymes, illustrations, and stanzas for kids to enjoy. Some of our favorites are:

• The Word Collector by Peter H. Reynolds
• Daniel Finds a Poem by Micha Archer
• A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
• One Leaf Rides the Wind by Celeste Davidson Mannis
• Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
• The Llama Who Had No Pajama by Mary Ann Hoberman

Our Favorite Poetry Books for Teens

For teenagers, poetry books can offer ways to express themselves and understand their own emotions. The fluid-structure of poetry helps teens discover and reveal how they feel about their lives and the world around them. Many teenagers enjoy poetry that raises awareness for topics that are important to them, as well.

Poetry books for teens can also help them understand and respect the opinions and views of people around the world. In other words, poetry teaches respect for diversity. For teens, expressing emotions in a healthy way can be achieved through poetry.

Here are some of our picks for the best poetry books for teens:

• For a Special Teenager: A Collection of Poems by Blue Mountain Arts
• Selected Poems of Robert Frost by Robert Frost
• The Dark Between Stars: Poems by Atticus Poetry
• A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
• The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry by Alan Kaufman

Teenagers might also enjoy a blank composition notebook to write their own poems, ideas, and thoughts and keep them together in a beautiful book that is all their own.

Celebrate National Poetry Month

Poetry is essential for people of all ages to understand the world and appreciate it, often in a different light than what they're used to.

It helps teach a cognitive understanding of words, creative expression, and even empathy for young children. Teens can use poetry to express themselves in unique ways and gain new perspectives on life.

In addition to our favorite poetry books listed here, you can find more books on children's poetry or browse the full selection of poetry books available at ThriftBooks. Have fun bringing poetry into the lives of kids and teens for National Poetry Month.

Read more by ThriftBooks Team