When my daughter was younger it seems like spooky stories were an all-year thing, with “The Ghost and Jenny Jemima” a regular feature. Whether you’re looking for a readaloud for the classroom or home, Spooky Poems Aloud is a fun one for Halloween season and beyond.
It includes 20 poems written by Joseph Coleho and illustrated by Daniel Gray-Barnett. They include poems of different styles such as limericks, poems with repeating lines, rhyming and non-rhyming. One poem loses a line every stanza, while another repeats an onomatopoeia. There’s also a renga, which is made up of tanka poems (lines of five syllables, then 7, then 5, 7 and 7), a pantoum and a villanelle, both of which have specific rhyme structures and repeating lines.
Many of the poems suggest that kids try writing one similar, such as a limerick, rules for a club for ghoulish creatures (examples in the book are werewolves and vampires), a poem about a scary plant or writing a poem that incorporates different senses.
This would be fun to do in the classroom, reading the poem from the book and having kids write and illustrate their own version, then share and display in the classroom. Or you could make a class poem around one of the prompts, such as asking kids what pranks they would pull if they were a ghost. One poem asks kids to illustrate the witches’ ball described in one poem, and the illustrations throughout are sure to inspire kids to want to draw their own illustrations to their poems.
This book would be a fun addition to the reading center during spooky season and an easy way to add a little poetry unit in October. Or just read it at home — but not too close to bedtime!
About the book: 40 pages, hardcover, 20 poems. Published 2024 by Wide Eyed Editions, suggested retail price $19.99.
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