Books of Poetry Parodies for Young People

In addition to being a time for celebrating poetry, April is also National Humor Month. That makes it a good time to introduce the concept of “parody” or “homage” too. This can be a particularly engaging exercise for young people in middle school and high school, in particular, offering a fun “backdoor” approach to the originals. The following titles are a few that offer a parody, riff, or twist on a classic poem, poet or other medium.

The list begins:

            Dahl, Roald. 2005. Vile Verses. New York: Viking.

Katz, Alan. 2008. On Top of the Potty: And Other Get-Up-and-Go Songs. New York: McElderry.

Katz, Bobbi. 2009. The Monsterologist; A Memoir in Rhyme. Ill. by Adam McCauley. New York: Sterling.

Levine, Gail Carson. 2012. Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It: False Apology Poems. Ill. by Matthew Cordell. New York: HarperCollins.

Lewis, J. Patrick. 2007. Tulip at the Bat. New York: Little, Brown.

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