6 Poetry Books from the Cybils Shortlist

I really wish the Cybils didn’t put children’s poetry in with the middle grade/YA poetry. It seems… not right. Whatever. It is what it is and we’ll just go with it, I guess.

So I read six. Finally.

– Dear Wandering Wildebeest and Other Poems From the Water Hole was fine. I didn’t love it. I didn’t hate it. It was fine.

– Firefly July was a cute seasonal poetry book. Nice mix of poetry from typical favorites and lesser known poets.

– Hi, Koo!: A Year of Seasons was fun. It was haiku but not the traditional haiku, which I appreciated. I was also amused by the hidden A, B, Cs — though that’s probably not super useful, I was just amused by it.

– Santa Clauses was better than I expected it to be. More haiku, which I wasn’t thrilled about but ended up liking quite a lot.

– Voices From the March on Washington was super interesting. (Again, why this and Brown Girl Dreaming are in the category with these younger children’s poetry… ugh.) I liked it very much. Kids who aren’t into poetry might like this. I highly recommend it.

– Water Rolls, Water Rises Water Rolls, Water Rises was excellent. I was surprised by how much I liked this one. I think it might have been my favorite of the bunch.