April is National Peotry Month: Library

Valerie Worth did four volumes of small poems. This anthology has all four collections plus fourteen more small poems in one book. Students always grab this book thinking it will be the best one to read because the poems are all short, making it easy. They are soon pleasantly surprised to learn that these small poems carry quite a punch. The other part I really like about this book is the delightful illustrations by Natalie Babbitt that I had only known as an author of books like Tuck Everlasting. Her precise black and white drawings give extra meaning to each poem.

Library
No need even
To take out
A book: only
Go inside
And savor
The heady
Dry breath of
Ink and paper,
Or stand and
Listen to the
Silent twitter
Of a billion
Tiny busy
Black words

-Valerie Worth