Bibliography for Unit Activities
Carroll, Lewis (Author) ; and Christopher A.(Illustrator) Myers. Jabberwocky: The Classic Poem from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There [JABBERWOCKY]. New York: Jump At the Sun, 2007. Jabberwocky is re-imagined by illustrator Christopher Myers as a basketball game in an urban setting.
Farjeon, Eleanor. Around the seasons: Poems. New York: H. Z. Walck, 1969. Poems for all seasons; best suited to primary children.
Farrell, Kate, and Kenneth Koch. Talking to the Sun: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems for Young People. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1985. Commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art contains a wide sampling of poems and artwork. Appropriate resource for students of any age.
Feelings, Tom. Soul Looks Back in Wonder. New York: Dial Books, 1993. Collection of beautiful poems by noted African American poets.
Giovanni, Nikki. Hip Hop Speaks to Children With Audio CD: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat: Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2008. A collection of fifty poems and songs featuring rap/hip-hop rhythms for young children. CD is included. A history of rap and hip-hop is provided by editor/poet, Nikki Giovanni.
Herzog, Brad. S Is for Save the Planet: A How-to-be Green Alphabet (Alphabet-Science & Nature). Missouri: Sleeping Bear Press, 2009. Excellent poetry picture book to coincide with April lessons connecting to Earth Day and environmental awareness.
Hopkins, Lee Bennett. Hanukkah Lights: Holiday Poetry (I Can Read Book 2). New York: HarperCollins, 2005. Twelve Hanukkah poems for children.
Keller, Charles. Tongue Twisters. New York: Aladdin, 1989. Great collection of single line and verse style tongue twisters for kids of any age.
Low, Alice. The Family Read-Aloud Christmas Treasury. Toronto: Little Brown & Company, 1995. Poems and stories for winter and Christmas.
Myers, Walter Dean (Author); and Myers, Christopher A.(Illustrator). Jazz. New York: Holiday House, 2006. Received Coretta Scott King Honor Award for Non-Violent Social Change. Gives a good, albeit technical, introduction to jazz. Could be adapted for use with younger children, selecting specific tracks and pages in the book. Even as a picture book, due to its length, would generally exceed the attention span of young children. It could be excerpted over a few days or weeks, depending on expected learning outcomes.
Myers, Walter Dean. Blues Journey. Pueblo: Live Oak Media, 2007. Audio/picture book combination. Thorough, yet succinct, study of the evolution of blues in the United States; includes a time line of milestones in blues history, and a glossary of blues terms. Could be adapted for use with young children, omitting disturbing words and images.
Paschen, Elise. (Ed.) Poetry Speaks to Children. Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks MediaFusion, 2005. A collection of 95 poems of all varieties and from various cultures. It includes a CD with several of the poems read by the poets. Most of the poems are especially appropriate for children in primary grades.
Sidman, Joyce. Songs of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2005. Beautifully illustrated Caldecott Honor book. Poems related to the environment feature an array of poetic elements from onomatopoeia to free verse.
Washington, Donna L.. The Story of Kwanzaa (Trophy Picture Books). New York: HarperTrophy, 1997. Explains the Kwanzaa story for the primary grades.
Wheeler, Lisa. Jazz Baby. New York: Harcourt Children's Books, 2007. A Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book with lively infectious rhythm, silly words, and repetitions that invite participation and predictions. Fun read-aloud rich in rhythm, sound, and nonsense.
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