Teen Poetry Reading List

Adoff, Arnold. The Basket Counts. (YA 811.54 AD71B)
Illustrations and poetic text describe the movement and feel of the game of basketball.

Adoff, Arnold. Slow Dance Heartbreak Blues. (YA 811.54 AD71T)
A collection of love poems for teens.

Agard, John, ed. Life Doesn't Frighten Me at All: Poems. (YA 808.81 L626)
A collection of poetry for teenagers that includes selections from such authors as Maya Angelou, W.B. Yeats, and Attila the Stockbroker.

Collins, Billy, ed. Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry. (YA 811.608 P752C)
Billy Collins compiles 180 poems, one for each day of the school year, for high school students to read so that they might learn
the value of poetry in their daily lives.

Duffy, Carol Ann, ed. I Wouldn't Thank You for a Valentine: Poems for Young Feminists. (YA 808.81 I1I)
A collection of poems by women from different cultures and backgrounds, portraying the varied facets of the female experience from childhood to old age.

Fleischman, Paul. Big Talk: Poems for Four Voices. (YA 811.54 F628B)
A collection of poems to be read aloud by four people with color-coded text to indicate which lines are read by which readers.

Giovanni, Nikki, ed. Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy like My Sister Kate: Looking at the Harlem Renaissance through Poems. (YA 811.508 SH62S)
Includes poems by such authors as Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, and Amiri Baraka, with commentary and a discussion of the development of African American arts known as the Harlem Renaissance.

Glenn, Mel. Split Image: A Portrait in Poems. (YA 811.54 G487S)
A series of poems reflect the thoughts and feelings of various people--students, the librarian, parents, the principal, and others--about the seemingly perfect Laura Li and her life inside and out of Tower High School.

Gordon, Ruth, ed. Pierced by a Ray of Sun: Poems about the Times We Feel Alone.
(YA 808.81 P611P)
An international anthology of poems about loneliness.

Holbrook, Sara. Walking On the Boundaries of Change: Poems of Transition. (YA 811.54 H696)
Poems for young adults which confront and question issues of transition, new experiences, difficult choices, and a search for truth.

Hull, Robert, ed. Breaking Free: An Anthology of Human Rights Poetry. (YA 808.819353 B74B)
Public and political, these poems are about refugees, prisons, slavery, torture and censorship from all over the world.

Janeczko, Paul B. How to Write Poetry. (YA 808.1 J253H)
Provides practical advice with checklists on the art of writing poetry.

Janeczko, Paul B. Seeing the Blue Between: Advise and Inspiration for Young Poets. (YA 811.608 SE32S 2002)
A compilation of letters of advice and support written for new and aspiring poets, by 32 renowned poets.

Johnson, Angela. The Other Side Shorter Poems. (YA 811.54 J63S 1998)
A collection of poems reminiscent of growing up as an African-American girl in Shorter, Alabama.

Medearis, Angela Shelf. Skin Deep and Other Teenage Reflections. (YA 811.54 M467S)
An insightful collection of easy-to-read poems about the problems and frustrations of being a teenager.

Mora, Pat. My Own True Name: New and Selected Poems for Young Adults, 1984-1999. (YA 811.54 M79M)
More than sixty poems, some with Spanish translations, include such titles as "The Young Sor Juana," "Graduation Morning," and "In the Blood."

National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, ed. When the Rain Sings: Poems by Young Native Americans. (YA 811.5408 W574N)
A collection of poems written by young Native Americans, inspired by or matched with photographs of artifacts and people from the National Museum of the American Indian.

Nye, Naomi Shihab, ed. What Have You Lost? (YA 808.819353 W556N)
A collection of poems that explore all kinds of loss.

Philip, Neil, ed. It's a Woman's World: A Century of Women's Voices in Poetry. (YA 808.810082 IT6I)
An anthology of poetry by twentieth-century women from around the world including, Sylvia Plath, Nigar Hanim, and Sonia Sanchez.

Rosenberg, Liz, ed. The Invisible Ladder: An Anthology of Contemporary American Poems for Young Readers. (YA 811.5408 IN8R)
Features such poets as Robert Bly, Allen Ginsberg, Nikki Giovanni, and Galway Kinnell by including photos, selections of their work, and comments on their poetry.

Sullivan, Charles, ed. Imaginary Gardens: American Poetry and Art for Young People. (YA 811.008 IM1)
Includes a selection of poems by American poets and works of art by a variety of artists.

Todd, Mark and Watson, Esther Pearl, eds. The Pain Tree and other Teenage Angst-Ridden Poetry. (YA 811.54 P16P)
A book of original poetry by and for teens.

Turner, Ann Warren. A Lion's Hunger: Poems of First Love. (YA 811.54 T851L)
Poems follow a year in a girl's life as she meets a boy, starts dating him, falls in love, and sees their special relationship come to an end.

Willard, Nancy, ed. Step Lightly: Poems for the Journey. (YA 808.81 ST43S)
A collection of poems celebrating the ordinary in an unordinary way, by such authors as Emily Dickinson, Theodore Roethke, and D. H. Lawrence.

Wong, Janet S. Behind the Wheel: Poems about Driving. (YA 811.54 W846B)
Thirty-six poems look at various aspects of driving, including passing the written driver's test, being pulled over by a cop, and having an accident, and treat them as metaphors for life.

Updated KP, 5/05. Holdings checked 7/06 KRL