NPM Day 2: Young People's Poet Laureate

Did you know there was a Young People's Poet Laureate? There's been one since 2006. 

From the official website, here's a description of the program: "Appointed every two years, the title of Young People’s Poet Laureate (YPPL) is awarded to a poet in recognition of a career devoted to writing exceptional poetry for young readers while working to instill a lifelong love of poetry among developing readers. This two-year appointment comes with a $25,000 annual stipend and additional programmatic funding in support of a project that promotes poetry to young people and their families, teachers, and librarians."

Here's a list of the of the Young People's Poet Laureates to date: 

• Carole Boston Weatherford (2024-2026): During her time as YPPL, Weatherford has published numerous books including Outspoken: Paul Robeson, Ahead of His Time: A One-Man Show.  
• Elizabeth Acevedo (2022-2024): During her time as YPPL, Acevedo published Inheritance: A Visual Poem. 
  
• Naomi Shihab Nye (2019-2022): During her time as YPPL, Nye published Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems and Cast Away: Poems of Our Time.  

• Margarita Engle (2017-2019): During her time as YPPL, Engle published Miguel's Brave Knight: Young Cervantes and his Dream of Don Quixote as well as other titles. 
• Jacqueline Woodson (2015-2017): During her time as YPPL, Woodson published her memoir in verse Brown Girl Dreaming. 

• Kenn Nesbitt (2013-2015): During his time as YPPL, Nesbitt co-authored Bigfoot Is Missing with J. Patrick Lewis. 
• J. Patrick Lewis (2011-2013): During his time as YPPL, Lewis edited The National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry and published 14 other books. 
• Mary Ann Hoberman (2008-2011): During her time as YPPL, Hoberman co-edited The Tree That Time Built: A Celebration of Science, Nature, and Imagination with Linda Winston. 
• Jack Prelutsky (2006-2008): During his time as YPPL, Prelutsky published 11 books. Of note are Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems, My Dog May Be a Genius, and Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry: How to Write a Poem.

Books written by these poets or recommended by these poets are an excellent place to start if you're new to poetry. In writing this post, I discovered several titles I need to add to my TBR pile. 

Resources 

• Carole Boston Weatherford's website
• Teacher's guide for Outspoken: Paul Robeson, Ahead of His Time: A One-Man Show on the publisher's website
• Elizabeth Acevedo's website
• Reading guide for Cast Away: Poems of Our Time on the publisher's website
• Teacher's guide, postcard, and poster for Miguel's Brave Knight: Young Cervantes and his Dream of Don Quixote on the publisher's website
• Teacher's guide for Brown Girl Dreaming on the publisher's website
• Jacqueline Woodson's website
• Kenn Nesbitt's Poetry4Kids website

Links to My Reviews: 

• Miguel's Brave Knight: Young Cervantes and his Dream of Don Quixote
• The National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry
• My Dog May Be a Genius

NPM Day 1: Why Poetry?

Why should you share poetry with children specifically? I believe middle school and high school age students don't like poetry because they've been made to analyze poetry in depth looking for a hidden meaning in their ELA classes. 

For preschool and elementary age children, poetry is fun. The poems are often humorous and help expand the children's vocabularies and imaginations. Reading poetry written for children is often eye-opening for adults. Poetry doesn't have to rhyme or have a deeper meaning. 

"How to Build a Poem" by Charles Ghinga from The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog and Other How To Poems selected by Paul B. Janeczko is the perfect introduction to poetry for children. I'll share it below.  

How to Build a Poem by Charles Ghinga 

Let’s build a poem 

made of rhyme 

with words like ladders 

we can climb, 

with words that like 

to take their time, 

words that hammer, 

words that nail, 

words that saw, 

words that sail, 

words that whisper, 

words that wail, 

words that open 

window         door, 

words that sing, 

words that soar, 

words that leave us 

wanting more. 

This quote from Douglas Florian in I Remember: Poems and Pictures of Heritage compiled by Lee Bennett Hopkins also shows how wonderful poetry can be: 

"To define poetry is like defining love:

A poem is a glimpse. 

A poem is a glimmer. 

Something that makes your whole soul shimmer. 

A poem is a taste. 

A poem is a sip. 

Something that makes your whole heart flip." 

From the preface of Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets by Kwame Alexander with Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth, Alexander says this: "Enjoy the poems. We hope to use them as stepping-stone to wonder, leading you to write, to read the works of poets being celebrated in this book, to seek out more about their lives and their work, or to simply read and explore more poetry. At the very least, maybe you can memorize one or two. We wonder how you will wonder." 

I've learned from my own experience that reading and writing poetry leads to more. I've challenged myself to write a poem every day in April. I'll probably read some poetry, too. I have a backlog of books to review in my office. How are you going to celebrate National Poetry Month? 

Resources 

• Find a teacher's guide and a poetry toolkit on the publisher's website for I Remember: Poems and Pictures of Heritage compiled by Lee Bennett Hopkins. 
• Find a teacher's guide on the publisher's website for Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets by Kwame Alexander with Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth. 
• Website for National Poetry Month

Links to my reviews: 

• The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog and Other How To Poems
• I Remember: Poems and Pictures of Heritage
• Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets

Bibliography

• Janeczko, Paul B. The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog: And Other How-to Poems. Illustrated by Richard Jones. Candlewick Press, 2019. 
• Lee Bennett Hopkins, et al. I Remember: Poems and Pictures of Heritage. Lee and Low Books Inc, 2019. 
• Alexander, Kwame, et al. Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets. Illustrated by Ekua Holmes. Candlewick Press, 2021.

National Poetry Month 2026

National Poetry Month begins tomorrow. 2026 marks the 30th anniversary of National Poetry Month. Find out more at the official website. 

Poetry is one of my favorite things. I love reading poetry, writing poetry, and sharing poetry with children and teens in my libraries. 

To celebrate National Poetry Month on What Is Bridget Reading?, I'll be posting everyday about ways you can share poetry with children and teens. I originally created a presentation for a college level Literature for Children and Youth class where I was a guest speaker for a few semesters. That opportunity ended and rather than just let my presentation gather dust, I'm turning it into content for my blog. 

I hope you enjoy my posts in April and that you are inspired to share more poetry with the children you interact with. 

Winter Wonderland Party

I hosted this event in January, but you could also do it in December or February. 

We read a few wintry books: Fox Versus Winter by Corey R. Tabor, Out Cold by Ryan T. Higgins, and Cold Turkey by Corey Rosen Schwartz and Kirsti Call. 

We had a snowball fight with fake snowballs. I got them from Amazon. 

We built snowmen with Play-Doh and accessories from Amazon. 

We went ice skating indoors using wax paper as skates on the carpet. 

We went on a Winter Animals Scavenger Hunt. I used a free clipart set from Teachers Pay Teachers. Find it here. 

I sent the kids home with plenty of activities: 

• I Spy Snowmen (Paper Trail Design)
• Coloring Page from Out Cold (Publisher's Website)
• Spiral Snowman Craft (krokotak)
• Winter Bear Coloring Page (krokotak)
• Recipes for snow dough, white play dough, and salt dough. The first two are from Imagination Tree (my favorite source for play dough recipes) and the last is from Unsophisticook. 

Soup's On Around the World by Denyse Waissbluth

Taste the World Book 2

Do you like soup? Let's travel the world and learn more about this delicious and versatile food!

Thoughts: I'm so glad the author and illustrator collaborated again to bring readers an around the world look at soup. Everyone has a soup and I was delighted to learn about some I'd never heard of before. I like that if you're reading this to younger kids in a storytime setting you can just use the large text and abbreviate the description to suit their attention spans. The illustrations are colorful and inviting. I like how detailed the soup ingredients are in the illustrations. I love that the author and illustrator shared their favorite soup recipes at the end of the book. Pair with 10 Hungry Rabbits by Anita Lobel, Is That Wise, Pig? by Jan Thomas, 10 Hungry Pigs by Derek Anderson, House Mouse by Michael Hall, Duck Soup by Jackie Urbanovic, Carrot Soup by John Segal, or Every Color Soup by Jorey Hurley for a soup-er storytime. Pair with Teatime Around the World and Delicious! Poems Celebrating Street Food from Around the World by Julie Larios to tour the world in food and drink. 

Get a curriculum guide from the publisher here. Don't miss the  first Taste the World book: Teatime Around the World. 

Themes: Soup, Food

(Review copy provided by publisher. Illustrated by Chelsea O'Byrne. Greystone Kids, 2025.)

Monthly Scavenger Hunts

Right before the world changed in 2020, I had started having a scavenger hunt as one of the activities at my library programs. I think the firsts were my 2018 Dr. Seuss Party and my 2018 Pete the Cat Party. During my 2021 Summer Program (held outside), so many children told me they remembered the scavenger hunts from the parties and missed doing them. 

I decided to create monthly scavenger hunts in the kids section. I've used book characters, book covers (Dr. Seuss and poetry books), but my favorite is using free clipart sets from Teachers Pay Teachers. I try to be intentional when planning the hunts and focus on these concepts: colors, shapes, emotions, numbers, and alphabet. 

A few of my favorite creators on Teachers Pay Teachers are Rainbow Sprinkle Studio - Sasha Mitten, P4 Clips Trioriginals, and Krista Wallden - Creative Clips Clipart. 

To create the scavenger hunt: I select the theme, print and laminate the hunt pieces, create a hunt sheet and a sign for display in the branches. I also curate an activity packet. krokotak, Paper Trail Design, and Monday Mandala are some of my favorite sources of activities. If needed I label the hunt pieces. This usually needs to happen with colors as there are never 12 unique colors. One of our branch assistants is colorblind so this also helps her and I've seen parents working with kids on letter recognition during the hunts. 

I'm just now started to recycle my hunts. November's hunt is from 2023 and December's is from 2022. 

I've been doing the monthly scavenger hunts since September 2021. Average monthly participation across four library branches has went from 70 in 2021 to 213 in 2025. 

Weekly Lego Challenges

Prior to 2020, I was hosting a Lego Club at my library branches as least three times per year. The pandemic changed that and weekly Lego challenges were my way of still engaging children with STEM learning even if we couldn't meet in person. 

I've continued with the Lego challenges even though I'm hosting in-person events again. There are some children who will likely never attend a library program for various reasons: scheduling, transportation, etc. These Lego challenges help conquer those barriers to access. 

The challenges post to our library Facebook pages and groups on Friday mornings at 10:00am. They are also posted in the library branches. I get a few emails from parents, but mostly I hear stories about how the kids always know to ask what the challenge is on Fridays. 

I use Canva to create the images and a variety of sources to create the challenges. Brownielocks, Holiday Insights, and even Wikipedia (search the date) are my favorites. I will also use my storytime themes. Challenges usually fall into a few broad categories: animal, food, color, number of pieces. 

I don't see myself stopping these anytime soon. The ability to schedule posts makes the challenges easy to maintain.