Poetry Alive! Books for grades 9-12 Shows

A Child's Introduction to Poetry

By: Michael Driscoll
Illustrated by: Meredith Hamilton
ISBN 13: 978-1579122829

Price: $19.95

Not just a beautifully illustrated collection of poetry but also an anthology that introduces students to the joy of many different types of poetry. Driscoll covers genres from nursery rhymes to sonnets, limericks to free verse in a style that is entertaining and fun. A cd included with this anthology serves as an extra supplement to the Poetry Alive! experience as students see poems acted out then get the chance to hear them as well.

Includes: Little Miss Muffet - Mother Goose, What Is Pink?, Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 (Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?), Shakespeare's Witches Chant (from Macbeth), I'm Nobody - Emily Dickinson, Life Doesnt Frighten Me - Maya Angelou
Grades K-2, 3-5, 9-12

Something Is Going To Happen: Classroom Packet

Price: $79.95

Includes: one Something Is Going To Happen: Teacher's Edition, 15 Something Is Going To Happen: Student's Editions, and a Poetry Alive's Greatest Hits CD - Volume Two

Grades 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Something Is Going To Happen: Classroom Packet

Price: $69.95

Includes: one Something Is Going To Happen: Teacher's Edition, 15 Something Is Going To Happen: Student's Editions, and a Poetry Alive's Greatest Hits Cassette - Volume Two

Grades 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz: 1957-1987

By: Octavio Paz
Edited and translated by: Eliot Weinberger
ISBN-13: 978-0811211734

Price: $23.95

The bilingual collection contains the best of Paz's work, many with new translations. Showing the range of Paz's work while maintaining the breadth of his style, this wonderful anthology will appeal to English and Spanish speakers alike. Since it provides the poetic text in both languages, it also serves as an excellent resource for those looking for performance ideas.

Includes: Between What I see and What I Say: Poem for Roman Jakobsen"
Grades 6-8, 9-12

Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing Up in the United States

Edited by: Lori M. Carlson
ISBN-13: 978-0805031355

Price: $16.95

This powerful collection includes poems in both Spanish and English with rhyme, rhythm, and sounds that capture the glory and pain if being Latino American. This is a wonderful addition to those who serve a bilingual population because many of the poems appear in both English and Spanish.

Includes: "The Calling" by Luis Rodriguez
Grades 9-12

Honey, I Love and Other Love Poems

By Eloise Greenfield
Pictures by: Diane and Leo Dillon
ISBN-13: 978-0064430975

Price: $5.99

This book celebrated its 30th Anniversary last year. It is truly a testament to the beauty and grace of this collection that continues to please readers of all generations. Greenfield writes evocative verse capturing the love and simple joys of everyday life.

Includes: Harriet Tubman
Grades 6-8, 9-12

Hour of freedom: American History in Poetry

Compiled by: Milton Meltzer
Illustrations by: Marc Nadel
ISBN-13: 978-1841213972

Price: $16.95

The 61 poem collection takes readers through American history with verse and rhythm. Arranged in seven roughly chronological sections, this anthology travels through time to tell the story of the United States by marking the moments and the people who made those moments. At times an unflinching look at our past, it contains the poetry of our darkest times as well as the brightest.

Includes: O Captain! My Captain!
Grades 6-8, 9-12

It's Show Time: Poetry From the Page to the Stage

By: Allan Wolf
ISBN-13: 978-1883731007

Price: $12.95

This is the perfect book to get for following up a Poetry Alive! performance because it contains the ideas, methods, and inspiration that inform our shows. Developed for elementary level, this title includes 26 poems scripted and ready for performance. It also includes director's notes and teaching ideas for those who want to take Poetry Alive Alive! experience just a bit further.

Includes: To Satch - Samuel Allen, Wilbur Wright and Orville Wright - Rosemary and Steven Vincent Benet, Sometimes I Feel This Way - John Ciardi, maggie & millie & mollie & may - E. E. Cummings, Some One - Walter de le Mare, Music - Eleanor Farjeon, The Quarrel - Eleanor Farjeon, Sunshine - Rose Flint, The Panther - Ogden Nash, Mummy Slept Late & Daddy Fixed Breakfast - John Ciardi, Wynken, Blynken, and Nod - Eugene Field, The Base Stealer - Robert Francis, Solution - Leland B. Jacobs, The Little Turtle - Vachel Lindsay, Humpty Dumpty - Mother Goose, Little Orphant Annie - James Whitcomb Riley, Who Has Seen the Wind? - Christina Rossetti, Dust of Snow - Robert Frost
Grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Jabberwocky

By: Lewis Carroll
Illustrated by: Joel Stewart
ISBN-13: 978-0763620189

Price: $15.99

This illustrated version of Carroll's wonderful classic serves up one artist's interpretation. This is a great addition to libraries and classrooms making the transition between poetry and art as well as those seeking to delve further into the world of Lewis Carroll.

Includes: Jabberwocky
Grades 6-8, 9-12

Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices

By: Paul Fleischman
Illustrated by: Eric Beddows
ISBN-10: 0-062018525

Price: 15.99

Newberry Award Winner

This remarkable collection of poems about bugs and insects is truly intended for two people to read aloud and enjoy together. The rhymes here also serve well as challenging and boisterous performance pieces. Paul Fleishman has captured the rhythm and movement of the creepy-crawly world with imaginatively crafted verse.

Includes: Chrysalis Diary, The Moth's Serenade, A Requiem, Whirligig Beetles
Grades 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Knock At a Star: A Child's Introduction to Poetry

Selected by: X.J. Kennedy and Dorothy Kennedy
Illustrated by: Karen Lee Baker
ISBN-13: 978-0316488006

Price: $12.99

Children of all ages will find something that delights and inspires in this title. The poetic sections are arranged topically as the world of poetry and poetic forms emerge from the classic and contemporary selections. A timely supplement to the Poetry Alive! performances, this anthology includes many of our favorite poets.

Includes: Dreams - Langston Hughes, The 1st (Eviction) - Lucille Clifton, In Just - E. E. Cummings, I Am Rose - Gertrude Stein, Mummy Slept Late & Daddy Fixed Breakfast - John Ciardi, A Word is Dead - Emily Dickenson, We Real Cool - Gwendolyn Brooks, The Eagle - Alfred Lord Tennyson, Sidwalk Racer - Lillian Morrison
Grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Love Poems

By: Nikki Giovanni
ISBN-13: 978-0688149895

Price: $14.00

Nikki Giovanni finds ways to tickle our emotions and inspire our ideas. This collection delivers as she shares poems of love that span a range of tone and mood; all of them deeply moving.

Includes: Kidnap Poem, Communication
Grades 8-8, 9-12

Neon Vernacular

By: Yusef Komunyakaa
ISBN-13: 978-0819512116

Price: $15.95

With a voice of deep beauty and rich complexity, Yusef Komunyakaa brings us a volume that spans his career as an artist. This volume of verse, which is highly recommended by Library journal, stands as the work of a modern poet as he responds to history, the world, and his sense of self in the midst of experience. It's an excellent addition to a high school library.

Includes: Camouflaging the Chimera, Monsoon Season
Grades 9-12

Poems: American Themes

Collected by: William C. Bassell
ISBN-10: 1-567650236

Price: $13.50

Not just a collection but also a primer on poetry. This is a great resource for teachers who have students in exploring the role of poetry and poets in their lives as well as the rich history of poetic traditions. This collection includes many lesser-known poems by well-known poets. It will serve as a great resource as an anthology and a reference work on poetry

Includes: The Double Play - Robert Wallace, The Little Turtle - Vachel Lindsay, To Satch - Samuel Allen, The Base Stealer - Robert Francis, Mending Wall - Robert Frost, The Flower-Fed Buffaloes - Vachel Lindsay, Annabel Lee - Edgar Allen Poe, Richard Cory - Edwin Arlington Robinson, Chicago - Carl Sandburg, Jazz Fantasia - Carl Sandburg, Women - Alice Walker, This is Just to Say - William Carlos Williams, My Papa's Waltz - Theodore Roethke, Lucinda Matlock - Edgar Lee Masters, Much Madness is Divinest Sense - Emily Dickenson,
Grades 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Rainbows Are Made: Poems by Carl Sandburg

By: Carl Sandburg
Selected by: Lee Bennett Hopkins
Wood Engravings by: Fritz Eichenberg
ISBN-13: 978-0152654818

Price: $13.00

As one of America's great writers, Carl Sandburg is remembered for writing verse that tells the story of the American spirit. This collection delivers seventy of his poems grouping them together in six sections headed by Sandburg's own definitions of poetry. It's a well-rounded introduction to the quality and depth of Sandburg's work.

Includes: Grass, Fog, Phizzog, Little girl Be Careful What You Say, Buffalo Dusk, Arithmetic
Grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Reflections On a Gift of Watermelon Pickle and other modern verse

Compiled by: Stephen Dunning, Edward Lueders and Hugh Smith
ISBN-13: 978-0688412319

Price: $19.99

We were very excited that this collection of modern poetry for middle and high school students is once more available. Spanning a diverse variety of poets and poetry, readers will find classical poets as well as the less well known; lighthearted verse alongside deeply profound. This sublime collection inspires and enlightens our shows and is one we still suggest to students searching for their own performance material.

Includes: How to Eat a Poem - Eve Merriam, Southbound on the Freeway - May Swenson, Fifteen - William Stafford, Lyllaby - Robert Hillyer, The Base Stealer - Robert Francis, Foul Shot - Edwin Hoey, Dreams - Langston Hughes, Resume - Dorothy Parker, Arithmetic - Carl Sandburg, This is Just to Say - William Carlos Williams, In Just - E. E. Cummings Grades 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Selected Poems of Langston Hughes

By: Langston Hughes
ISBN-10: 0-67972818X

Price: $13.95

This collection of poems contains works that Langston Hughes selected from several of his works. A classic selection selected by a classical poet.

Includes: Daybreak in Alabama, Mother to Son, Madam and the Rent Man, Life is Fine, Poem, The Dream Keeper, Harlem (A Dream Deferred )
Grades 6-8, 9-12

Something Is Going To Happen: Student's Edition

By: Allan Wolf
With Assistance from: Jim Nave

Price: $4.95

As an excerpt from the Teacher's Edition, this will help students with their own ideas and performances as they prepare for a show. It contains the scripted poems, a selection of unscripted poems, and the stages of poetry performance. It's a great resource for those who want to develop their own programming.

Includes: I'm Nobody - Emily Dickenson, A Word is Dead - Emily Dickenson, Dawn - Paul Laurence Dunbar, Casey at the Bat - Ernest Lawrence Thayer, We Real Cool - Gwendolyn Brooks, Jabberwocky - Lewis Carroll, A Bird Came Down the Walk - Emily Dickenson, The Glove and the Lions - Leigh Hunt, Eldorado - Edgar Allan Poe, The Blind Men and the Elephant - John Godfrey Saxe, The Eagle - Alfred Lord Tennyson, Fog - Carl Sandburg

Grades 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Something Is Going To Happen: Teacher's Edition

By: Allan Wolf
ISBN-10: 1-883731038

Price: $9.95

Targeting middle and high school teachers, this book helps others produce their own poetry show as well as supplement classroom activities following a Poetry Alive! Performance. Included are handy scripts, director's notes, and basic ideas relating to poetry performance.

Grades 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

These Are My Rivers: New and Selected Poems

By: Lawrence Ferlinghetti
ISBN-13: 978-0811212731

Price: $15.99

Ferlinghetti's evocative poetry captures the imagination and ignites the mind. His work, often included with the Beat Poets, spans decades and continues to have a lasting impact on high school audiences. This collection includes poem culled from 12 previous volumes plus 50 new works. It's a wonderful addition to a high school collection.

Includes: Constantly Risking Absurdity
Grades 9-12