Over the centuries the genre of poetry has been very popular among children and so a plethora of Children's Poetry including – folk poetry (Mother Goose rhymes) international poetry (Shel Silverstein), nature poems, et cetera have been written. Children are introduced to the world of poetry right from their childhood. From the age of two or three, when the child starts toddling, he starts learning nursery rhymes. The child can pick up the rhyming words more accurately than the general words. Thus rhymes have always appealed to a child's senses.
As the child grows up, he starts taking more pleasure in the varied rhymes, rhythms and imageries of poems. There are other kinds of children's poems that are written for children but are aimed at adults (for instance Ogden Nash's poetry). There are also children's poems that are taken from prose pieces like those of Rudyard Kipling and Lewis Carol.
The following is a list of some of the popular collections of Children's Poetry books. These books consist of modern as well as classic poems, poems celebrating nature, poems written by Latino poets and so on.
Classic Poetry: An Illustrated Collection offers an anthology of poems written by the world famous poets such as Shakespeare, Lear, Longfellow, Whitman, Poe, Dickinson, Hughes and Stevenson and will generally appeal to older children. Apart from these, the book also contains short biographies and portraits of these illustrious poets.
- Love to Mamá celebrates the universal love between a mother and child and even between a grandmother and her grandchildren. This compendium consists of poems written by 13 Latino poets and the great artwork by Paula S. Barragán M adds to the appeal of the book.
- Pieces: A Year in Poems & Quilts consists of the works of Anna Grossnickle Hines. The collection includes about twenty poems written on nature that have striking visual imageries. This book not only appeals to children but also to people of all age groups.
- A Child's Calendar consists of poetry by John Updike, a Pulitzer Prize winner. Seasons are celebrated in the poetry and the illustrations are quite vivid.
- A Poke in the I is a compendium of thirty quality concrete poems.
- The 20th Century Children's Poetry Treasury, is compiled by Jack Prelutsky, the renowned children's poet. This sparkling collection consists of 200 poems written by 137 poets on wide ranging subjects as varied as siblings, nature, school and daily life.
- Winter Eyes is an anthology of 28 simple, humorous poems that celebrate seasons especially winter.
Other world famous children's poetry includes the following works:
- A Song from the Suds by Louisa May Alcott
- Beautiful Soup by Lewis Carroll
- Daddy Fell into the Pond by Alfred Noyes
- Fifteen Men on the Dead Man's Chest by Robert Louis Stevenson
- How Pleasant to know Mr. Lear by Edward Lear
- How Doth the Little Crocodile by Lewis Carroll
- Macavity - The Mystery Cat by T S Eliot
- Stellas Birthday by Jonathan Swift
