Poetry Books about Family

The family unit is such an important part of the lives of children as they’re developing as well as for teens trying to establish their own independent identity. Poetry can capture familiar experiences and emotions and celebrate the good times as well as reflect the special challenges of these relationships and comfort us through the bad times. Here is a selection of poetry books about family, families, and sibling relationships.

            The list begins:

            Adoff, Arnold. 1973. Black is Brown is Tan. New York: Harper & Row.

Ahlberg, Allan and Ingram, Bruce. 2010. Everybody Was a Baby Once. Candlewick.

Anholt, Catherine, and Laurence Anholt. 1998. Big Book of Families. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

Calmenson, Stephanie. 2002. Welcome, Baby! Baby Rhymes for Baby Times. New York: HarperCollins.

Dotlich, Rebecca Kai. 2002. A Family like Yours. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills.

For more details, get your copy of The Poetry Teacher’s Book of Lists.

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