Poems as Picture Books

I’m a poet and a picture book writer. I’m also a verse novelist. One of my favorite things to do is intentional study—learning from mentor texts. In 2024, each Poetry Friday post will feature one of my favorite things: poems as picture books.

I’ll take my favorite picture books that are poems, illustrated across an entire picture book. As a poet, I’ll also study what makes these poems stand out to me.

Previous Poems as Picture Books Posts

What You Need to Be Warm

by Neil Gaiman

Illustrated by multiple illustrators

Poetry Connections

Found poetry (or at least crowdsourced)
List poem
Repetition
Word choice (my favorite is “breath-ice”)
Consonance and Alliteration

This book is crowdsourced. You know that Neil is the king of social media. He asked his followers their memories of being warm. Neil gave the poem as a gift to the UN Refugee Agency to raise money for those displaced by war and persecution. It’s illustrated by multiple illustrators. It’s 349 words long. A longish poem, but the words all need to be there.

Links

This book was first featured on the January 5, 2023 Poetry Friday post.

Tumble

Tumble

by Adriana Hernández Bergstrom

Orchard Books, 2023

This is a 40-word book that is a short rhyming poem about a tumbleweed tumbling across the desert. It’s laid out mostly one line per spread.

Poetry Connections

Use of space (line, word)
Rhyming
Couplets
Alliteration
Assonance
Narrative
Science connections to the flora and fauna in the desert (back matter)

Links

This book was first featured on the January 12, 2024 Poetry Friday post.

Thank You, Garden

Thank You, Garden

by Liz Garton Scanlon

Illustrated by Simone Shin

Beach Lane 2020

This poem as a picture book is 98 words. It’s a rhyming poem about a community garden.

Poetry Connections

Pauses using page turns and punctuation.
Rhyming
Repetition
Alliteration
Rhythm

Remember

Remember

by Joy Harjo

Illustrated by Michaela Goade

This is a 163-word poem originally published in 1983. It was illustrated by Caldecott Award winner Michaela Goade’s gorgeous illustrations in 2023.

Poetry Connections

Repetition
Connection to nature/nature poetry
Connection to family stories
Second person POV

Links

This book was first featured on the February 2, 2024 Poetry Friday post.

Wild Peace

Wild Peace

by Irene Latham

Illustrated by Il Sung Na

This 131-word poem as picture book personifies peace and the calming power of nature.

Poetry Connections

Rhyming
Personification
Alliteration
Assonance
Consonance
Repetition

Thank a Farmer

Thank a Farmer

by Maria Gianferrari

illlustrated by Monica Mikai

W.W. Norton, 2023

This is a 596-word book that contains what I’d call a series of poems, or you might call it one long poem about different types of farmers.

Poetry Connections

Alliteration
Repetition
Refrain
Internal rhyme
Occasional end rhyme
Strong verbs

Links:

This book was first featured on the March 1, 2024 Poetry Friday post.

Beautiful Noise

Beautiful Noise: The Music of John Cage

by Lisa Rogers

Illustrated by Il Sung Na

Anne Schwartz Books, 2023

This is a 447 word picture book biography written as a poem about John Cage.

Poetry Connections

Repetition
Refrain
Second Person POV
List Poem
Strong verbs

Links

This book was first featured on the March 8, 2024 Poetry Friday post.

Seeds of Change

Seeds of Change

by Nina Laden, illustrated by Sawyer Cloud

Roaring Brook Press, 2024

This 130-word picture book that uses the metaphor or seeds to help readers know how they can make the world a better place. It has connections to Social-Emotional Learning.