Poetry Picture Books

Pigmares...by Doug Cushman

I thought this book was adorable and creative while still being very appropriate for middle school students, even the older middle grades. All the poems are based off scary movies that have been turned into poems about pigs.  I would definitely use this book while teaching a poetry unit to not only show students really great poems that are creative, but also to inspire them to write poems like these.  Reading this book and then turning things like movies or stories into poems in a different context would be a great class activity to really channel students' creativeness.  I also think this would be a book that could be read to a class to then discuss the poems and the rhetorical devices they use like rhyme and line breaks.  The illustrations also really go with the poems.  I would really love to see a class compose a book like this one that could be used in a younger classroom even!

The Company of Crows...written by Marilyn Singer...illustrated by Linda Saport

I really enjoyed this book.  Definitely written on a higher level than the previous book.  It's a little more abstract, both the poetry and the illustrations.  I think this would definitely be good for an older middle school poetry unit both to analyze poetry and inspire students to write it.  I loved how the titles of every poem were incorporated into the pictures and how the poems capitalize on different aspects of crows.  I've grown to really love authors notes and this one was great.  The author talked about how he wrote this to change reader's perspectives on crows as most people think they're evil, but they are really loyal, faithful, and good parents.