Middle readers have more confidence. They can read on their own, choose their own books, and often choose series books that parents wish they wouldn't -- like Goosebumps, rather than the latest Newbery Honor book.

By Carole Boston Weatherford
Illustrated by Dimitrea Tokunbo

"As little girls jump double Dutch,/ Beaded braids swirl and click./ Brothers with time on their hands/croon in three-part harmony,/ setting the pace for foot traffic/ up and down the sidewalk."

Every page of this book contains simple, resonant language, painting pictures of real-life not often found in books for children, and even more rarely found in poetry for them.

In "Chocolate Buddies," Weatherford employs a charming line: "How chocolate sweetens friendship/as we chill out on the stoop."

Tokunbo's rich illustrations, saturated with color and detail, and a perfect match. She's got a good eye for portraiture, which gives the book a depth for readers; my children linger over the pages as they examine the many individuals Tokunbo has painstakingly delineated here. Each has their own expression, their own story, all in her lines.

(Full disclosure: Dimitrea Tokunbo is my childhood friend.)

The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders

Poems by Jack Prelutsky
Pictures by Petra Matthews

Filled with rhymes just right for the early reader and just fun for the read-to-me set, this is a good introduction to the world of poetry.

Sarah Small grows more than plants, and carpenters build houses for mice and their spouses. It's great.

My Parents Think I'm Sleeping

Poems by Jack Prelutsky
Pictures by Yossi Abolafia

What DOES “turn the wrens to ravens?” Poet Jack Prelutsky has an insight into a child’s point of view. What makes everything look so colorless and drab in the powerfully attractive nighttime world? Prelutsky explores this in “What Happens to the Colors?”
He also deals with that persistent childhood problem – insomnia – in “Tonight is Impossibly Noisy.” As parents, we can more easily remember the frustration of trying to get children to go to bed, but when you read this poem, it helps to remember that feeling of trying to get to sleep when you’re an excited child.

I mean, could YOU sleep if you had a “Monkey battalion dancing on needles and pins” in YOUR room? Or an “out-of-tune elephant orchestra?”

Salting the Ocean:
100 Poems by Young Poets

Selected by Naomi Shihab Nye

Poet Naomi Shihab Nye works with children all over the country. She's gathered their poems in this volume; they're terrific. Nye is an award-winning poet and author of several children's books herself.