Poetry and the Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People

Since 1972, each year the National Council for the Social Studies in cooperation with the Children’s Book Council selects a list of “Notable” children’s books (K-12) looking for books that emphasize human relations, represent a diversity of groups and are sensitive to a broad range of cultural experiences, present an original theme or a fresh slant on a traditional topic, are easily readable and of high literary quality, have a pleasing format, and, where appropriate, include illustrations that enrich the text. Here is a list of the poetry books that have been included in each year’s list since 2001 with a total of 55 works of poetry on the combined lists and an average of 5 poetry titles per year. (Complete annotated bibliographies are available on the NCSS and CBC web sites.)


The list begins:

1. Richards, Jame. 2010. Three Rivers Rising. New York: Knopf.
2. Hill, Laban Carrick. 2010. Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave. Ill. by Bryan Collier. New York: Little, Brown.
3. Adoff, Arnold. 2010. Roots and Blues, A Celebration. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
4. Engle, Margarita. 2010. The Firefly Letters; A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba. New York: Henry Holt.

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