Sign up for the 2025 Summer Challenge: Wild Summer

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  This year's Read, Discuss, Do Summer Challenge: WILD SUMMER officially kicks off on June 2 and goes until August 11! This is a free reading challenge that pairs books with summer fun! Find all the information you need plus a bonus book list in this post , or sign up via this form . Also, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter so you don't miss any of the weekly emails.  Week One: Bears  - Our special guest Bear shares some of his beary favorite books and activity ideas to help you have a beary great bookish (and bearish) summer. Week Two: Elephants - Our big guest shares some of her favorite books and ideas to help you make a big splash this summer.
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National Poetry Month Celebration: Concrete Poetry

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Read, Discuss, Do! continues its celebration of poetry this week with concrete poetry! Concrete poems, or shape poems, are a really fun type of poetry because the words form a shape. These types of poems can be rhythmic and rhyming, or read like free verse, or even simply be groupings or lists of descriptive words arranged to look like or represent the poem's subject. These types of poems can be a great way to impress young readers who claim they don't like poetry. So, read some concrete poems and have fun writing and designing some too!

Wet Cement: A Mix of Concrete Poems by Bob Raczka is a great place to start. It's a wonderful "mix" of concrete poems covering lots of topics.

Meow Ruff: A Story in Concrete Poems by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Michelle Berg is a unique and clever story told completely in concrete poems!

A Poke in the I: A Collection of Concrete Poems by Paul B. Janeczko, illustrated by Christ Raschka, is a colorful and playful assortment of poems aimed to please the reluctant poetry reader.

Some examples of concrete poems:

Read this "Sonnet in the Shape of a Potted Christmas Tree" by George Starbuck on poetryfoundation.org.

And here's one from our own Rebecca J. Gomez:


Learn more about writing concrete poetry from this lesson at Poetry4Kids. 

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