Diverse Poetry Picture Books for Kids

From Brightly: Colorful Poetry: 22 Diverse Poetry Picture Books for Kids

Poetry, like other forms of literature, can also be entertaining, beautiful, and meaningful. Kids are usually immediately drawn to the rhythm and rhyme of poetry. Much like diversity, poetry can provide a mirror for us to see ourselves, and a window into others’ experiences, to help us understand the lives and perspectives of different people.

Here are more than 20 diverse poetry picture books to explore with kids during National Poetry Month and beyond. Enjoy!

Child of the Universe

by Ray Jayawardhana, illustrated by Raul Colon

Captured in rhyming verse and illustrations that will take your breath away, Child of the Universe is one father’s attempt to show his daughter just how special she is by illuminating her extraordinary connections to the universe. Jayawardhana, a renowned astrophysicist, explains the inner workings of the universe, while Colón transports us to spectacular, out-of-this-world landscapes, this book is a new modern classic in the making.
(Ages 3 – 7)

Overground Railroad

by Lesa Cline-Ransome, illustrated by James E. Ransome

A family’s journey north during the Great Migration is narrated in poems by the daughter, Ruth Ellen, who’s as observant of her surroundings as she is of the similarities between her passage and that of Frederick Douglass, whose story she reads as the train heads for New York, to an unknown yet optimistic future. An emotional and historically significant read from the author-illustrator team behind the award-winning biography in verse, Before She Was Harriet.
(Ages 4 – 8)