Poetry: Books for Middle Grade

"Hard as we work for nothing, there must be some way we can change things...there must be something else." ---The youngest of twenty children born to sharecroppers in the Mississippi Delta, Fannie Lou Hamer grew up to become a hero of the civil rights movement. She participated in marches, sit-ins, and voter education training...efforts that earned her severe beatings by the police, jail time, and bullets shot into her home. In 1964, as a member...

Presents a collection of twenty poems written in tribute to well-known poets from around the world.

"Jacqueline Woodson, one of today's finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse. Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and...

"In this collection of poetry, Nikki Grimes looks afresh at the poets of the Harlem Renaissance -- including voices like Langston Hughes, Georgia Douglas Johnson, and many more writers of importance and resonance from this era -- by combining their work with her own original poetry. Using "The Golden Shovel" poetic method, Grimes has written a collection of poetry that is as gorgeous as it is thought-provoking. This special book also includes original...

A poetry anthology in which 129 poets from sixty-eight different countries celebrate the natural world and its human and animal inhabitants.

Much of what twenty-first century culture tells black girls is not pretty: Don't wear this; don't smile at that. Don't have an opinion; don't dream big. And most of all, don't love yourself. In response to such destructive ideas, internationally recognized poet Mahogany Browne challenges the conditioning of society by crafting an anthem of strength and magic undeniable in its bloom for all beautiful Black girls.--Provided by Publisher.

Few writers capture the everyday moments of life like Gary Soto. In direct and vivid poems, he draws from his own youth in California's Central Valley to portray the joys and sorrows of young people. His writing focuses on Latino characters, yet speaks to readers of all ethnicities.--From publisher description.

"Poet Naomi Shihab Nye shines a spotlight on the things we cast away, from plastic water bottles to refugees"--

A poetry collection that both illustrates what mindfulness is and encourages young, growing minds to be present.

When Mrs. Merz asks her sixth grade class to write poems of apology, they end up liking their poems so much that they decide to put them together into a book. Not only that, but they get the people to whom they apologized to write poems back. In haiku, pantoums, two-part poems, snippets, and rhymes, Mrs. Merz"s class writes of crushes, overbearing parents, loving and losing pets, and more. Some poets are deeply sorry; some not at all. Some are forgiven;...