Ten Books for National Poetry Month (plus a weekly poetry challenge)

  April is a mere five days away, and that means it’s almost National Poetry Month! To help you get a kick start to celebrating poetry throughout April, we’ve put together an assortment of book recommendations. You’ll find a little bit of everything in this list of ten books: poetry collections, picture book stories told in poems, biographies of poets, even a novel in verse! We hope this list is just the beginning of a month of reading, discussing and doing (that is, writing ) poetry! We have a month long celebration planned in which we challenge our readers and the children in their lives to read, discuss, and write four different types of poems—one challenge per week. You can join the weekly poetry fun by subscribing to our newsletter , visiting the website regularly for updates, following us on Instagram (@readdiscussdo), or all of the above! To read : Choose a book from this list or any poetry book. To discuss : Do you usually like poetry? Why or why not? Can you think of a poem y

Parent and Child Poetry Challenge: Tercet Poems

by Rebecca J. Gomez

For our final Poetry Month challenge, we are exploring tercets! A tercet is simply a three-lined poem or a three-lined stanza (or verse) in a longer poem. Tercets often rhyme, with each line ending with the same sound. Sometimes only the first and last lines rhyme. And other times they don't rhyme at all!

Here is an example of a rhyming tercet poem:

Honey Bee

by Rebecca J. Gomez

The honey bee buzzes from flower to flower.
Doesn't he ever grow weary at all
busily buzzing hour by hour?


Here is one that does not rhyme: 

Delicious Dilemma

by Julia McMullen and Samantha Coté

A box of puffs calls, whispers of magic sugar dust.
I pass temptation, pushing my cart of provisions,
but I left my heart in aisle four.


There is only one rule in writing a tercet: there must only be three lines! That's it. And here's a fun fact: ANY three-lined poem is a tercet. Even a haiku!

I hope you enjoy writing tercets this week. Remember to share them on social media using the hashtag #RDDPoetryChallenge or email them to us at readdiscussdo@gmail.com. 

Happy Writing!

Comments

Mindy Baker said…
I love this! It has been such a fun month!