Dybbuk Americana

Written by: Joshua Gottlieb-Miller

First line: I don't like to guess what kind of Jew/I could have been/in 1492, 1942; pick a year/and I would have thought, "Bad Jew,"/looking in a mirror, under my breath. 

Why you should read this book: This collection of poetry examines the questions of identity, belief, and behavior that are, perhaps, unique to American Judaism. Frankly discussing the concepts of whiteness, assimilation, mixed marriage, antisemitism, family history, world history, philosophy, child rearing, and his own relationship with his community, his relatives, and himself, the author offers an honest picture of a man haunted by the quality of Jewishness that coalesces around spirituality and ethnicity in America. This large format book allows for a layout that seems to communicate the multitude of voices and ideas informing the author's journey and evolution as he places his life in the larger context of history, culture, and family. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Some of the experimental-feeling layout makes the poetry ambiguous or difficult to read. 

Grimericks

Written by: Susan Pearson and Gris Grimly

First line: Dear Reader, please lend me your ear

Why you should read this book: A cute little gothy kids' book featuring twenty moderately amusing limericks about various creepy subjects (ghosts, ghouls, witches, and so on). The rhymes are clearly just vehicles for the delightfully demented illustrations of black cats with mismatched eyes, dead little girls with birds nesting in their hair, and so on. Perfect for big kids with dark senses of humor. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You don't think there's anything funny about death. 

The Days Are Just Packed

Written by: Bill Watterson

First line: MOMMM

Why you should read this book: If you find yourself yearning for a simpler era, one in which the entire country was rallied around the philosophical musings of an impulsive six-year-old and his more mature but equally prone to chaos tiger companion, perhaps it's time to revisit the magical world of Calvin and Hobbes. This collection from the early '90s has it all: dissociative daydreams, rhyming verse, Calvin harassing his father, Calvin harassing his mother, Calvin harassing his teacher, and, of course, Calvin harassing the little girl next door. Just all around late twentieth century joy from a time where everyone consumed the same media and people felt OK about little children reading the news.

Why you shouldn't read this book: This work is not to be consumed by authoritarians. 

You Are My #MeToo

Written by: Joyce Lauren Kidlington

First line: I need to talk through things.

Why you should read this book: Part chapbook, part therapy session, this short poetry anthology lays out the hard details of an abusive relationship. Joyce is a bisexual cis woman battling mental illness while trying desperately to please a cruel, gaslighting partner who hasn't yet come out as trans. The relationship is over and dead, but the ghosts linger. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's really just about abuse. 

Jabberwocky: a Pop-up Rhyme from Through the Looking Glass

Written by: Nick Bantock and Lewis Carroll 

First line: 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves/ Did gyre and gimble in the wabe/All mimsy were the borogroves,/And the mome raths outgrabe.

Why you should read this book: It's a tiny volume comprising the famous nonsense poem, illustrated in a delightfully nonsensical and 3-dimensional style by the inimitable Nick Bantok. The poem's narrator is kind of drawn like Santa Claus and the young hero takes with him on his quest a tiny green monster for no discernible reason, and the vorpal blade goes snicker snack. It's just how you remember, although possibly not how you imagined.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Pop-up books are notoriously fragile and this one was published 35 years ago.

Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Ashes

Written by: Linda Addison

First line: Consumed, reduced to ashes,/beautiful grey,/light as angel wings

Why you should read this book: From the award-winning author, a poetry collection that is equal parts creepy and intense. These poems speak of death, of our fear of it, of the comfort of its inevitability, but also of love, and longing, and the knowledge that from ashes new things may grow. Addison's precise and loving use of language recreates the world in her image, with the knowledge that there is no darkness without light and no light without darkness, a balance that humanity must embrace, because we can never escape it. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You prefer poems that rhyme and paint pretty pictures.

Locomotion

Written by: Jacqueline Woodson

First line: This whole book's a poem 'cause every time I try to/tell the whole story my mind goes Be quiet!

Why you should read this book: A children's book that discusses big issues, this novel in poems takes us into the mind of Lonnie "Locomotion" Motion, a young boy grieving the loss of his parents in a fire, and his separation from his little sister in foster care. Pursuing excellence in self-expression, he examines his own feelings, limns his classmates and the adults in his life, and builds relationships. The voice is remarkable, honest and vulnerable but observant and clever, and Lonnie's journey takes him outside of himself, and into the lives of the people around him, while elevating his own mind from tragedy to hope. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're a mean foster mom. 

Llama Llama Time to Share

Written by: Anne Dewdney

First line: Llama Llama playing trains, driving trucks, and flying planes.

Why you should read this book: This is a read-aloud story in rhyming couplets for very young children, about the importance of sharing and the perils of not sharing. A new neighbor, Nelly Gnu, comes over to play with Llama Llama, and for a while he manages to handle this stranger playing with his toys, but when Nelly involves his favorite doll in the game, Llama finds he cannot share, with disastrous results. Eventually, the catastrophe is rectified and Llama learns it is more fun to share, and that doing so results in making new friends.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You are over the age of seven and you know how to share. 

Ryokan: Zen Monk-Poet of Japan

Translated by: Burton Watson

First line: Though travels/take me to/a different stopping place each night/the dream I dream is always/that same one of home

Why you should read this book: It's a curated collection of the poetry of the late 18th/early 19th century Zen monk Ryokan, including the three Japanese forms of waka, sedoka, and choka, along with a selection of his Chinese kanshi, all beautifully rendered into English that evokes the complex simplicity of the subject matter. These poems tend toward observations of the natural world (often focused on seasonal changes or animla behaviors), musings on his own life as an ascetic who begs for his meals and also likes to play ball with the village boys, and his thoughts on the people and world he knows, including his memories of the past. Reading these poems may perhaps offer the reader an understanding of the unspoken ideals of Zen Buddhism, or at least Ryokan's particular take on his beliefs.

Why you shouldn't read this book: If you were next in line for a position of power, you'd take it. 

The Prophet

Written by: Kahlil Gibran

First line: Almustafa, the chosen and beloved, who was a dawn unto his own day, had waited twelve years in the city of Orphalese for his ship that was to return and bear him back to the isle of his birth. 

Why you should read this book: A beloved and enduring longform poem written one hundred years ago, The Prophet is a series of mind-expanding dialogs between the prophet and the people of Orphalese, who ask him to speak to them of various aspects of the human condition. The prophet answers with advice--some metaphorical, some concrete--on living fully, openly, joyfully, and honestly. Each short chapter offers musings on topics such as love, work, freedom, pleasure, and so on, turning the everyday experience of all humans into a spiritual quest wherein every individual can hope to achieve enlightenment in this world. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: The dust jacket of the edition I have in my hand suggests that if this book doesn't uplift, educate, and inspire you, that you are likely "dead to life and truth."

Daddy Poems

Edited by: John Micklos, Jr. 

First line: It was still dark when I woke up/and stumbled out of bed,/sleepily searching for my slippers/on my way to the bathroom.

Why you should read this book: A beautifully illustrated and carefully curated collection of poetry for young readers about fathers, featuring a diverse sampling of poets. The book takes into account the complicated feelings of children whose parents are divorced, and includes a poem about a child's confusing feelings for his stepfather. These poems are full of emotion and love and joy and pain.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Probably not a great choice for people with absent or abusive fathers. 

Out of This World: Star-Studded Haiku

Written by: Sally M. Walker and Matthew Trueman

Why you should read this book: Exactly what it says it is: a short collection of short poems and splashy paintings that describe our knowledge of the celestial world. Stars, planets, the Big Bang, the robots on Mars, and other cosmic concepts get the 5-7-5 treatment. Includes 6 additional pages of historical, factual, and scientific details about the subject matter, along with a glossary, reading list, and links to relevant websites.

Why you shouldn't read this book: I think, to enjoy this book, you have to be really into space and really into haiku.

In the Beautiful Country

Written by: Jane Kuo

First line: I am leaving the only home I've ever known.

Why you should read this book: Anna's parents want to leave Taiwan and immigrate to America so she can have a better life, but once she arrives, Anna questions how the "Beautiful Country" can ever provide her with a better life than she had at home when her parents must work constantly at their failing restaurant, she doesn't speak the language or understand the customs, and some racists seem determined to hurt the family until they give up and return to Taiwan. But Anna has no choice but to keep moving forward, until eventually she makes some friends and her parents figure out the magic formula for success in a new home. Written in the form of a long prose poem, this is a fast, emotional, and personal story that brings the modern immigrant experience to life.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You think being polite to bullies will make them stop.

The Wild Party

Written by: Joseph Moncure March (drawings by Art Spiegelman)

First line: Queenie was a blonde, and her age stood still,/And she danced twice a day in Vaudeville.

Why you should read this book: As far as I am concerned, this is the best poem anyone's ever written about anything; it just happens to be about love, lust, jealousy, booze, the jazz age, theater people, and the human condition, and also it rhymes. Like, imagine if The Great Gatsby and the musical Chicago got drunk and had a one-night-stand and their baby was more beautiful than either of them had ever aspired to be and also depicted people as they actually are and actually behave, that's The Wild Party. It's a relentless, fast-paced journey into the psyche of the artistic temperament and the passions that keep it ebbing and flowing like the moon's pull on the ocean. occasionally sweeping the not-so-innocent bystander out to sea.

Why you shouldn't read this book: With frank discussions of sex and sexuality and even a few words about race, this nearly 100-year-old book was once considered too controversial to see print.

If I Ran the Circus

Written by: Dr. Seuss 

First line: "In all the whole town, the most wonderful spot/Is behind Sneelock's Store in the big vacant lot." 

Why you should read this book: Young Morris McGurk waxes poetic/fanciful about his plans for a vacant lot in his town, which, if he can just clear out the trash, will house the most remarkable circus ever conceived. Along with a large number of increasingly improbable animals, his plans hinge on the full participation of old man Sneelock, an amiable grandfatherly type who seems content to lean against the door jamb smoking a pipe, although McGurk's vision depends on Sneelock participating in wild stunts, training animals, and performing dangerous feats such as diving four-fifths of a mile into a fishbowl. McGurk has a big imagination but the implication seems to be that he has no follow-through and there's no indication that he's secured financial back for this project. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Even for Seuss fans, this one is kind of phoned-in, derivative of other Seuss works, highly dependent on nonsense words to create easy rhymes, with no plot or conflict to speak of, other than the reader's relative certainty that Sneelock isn't going to participate on any level envisioned by the young narrator.

Time You Let Me in: 25 Poets under 25

Edited by: Naomi Shihab Nye

 First line: If you drive old farm road 43 from Corpus Christi, Texas, up to Driscoll right at dawn and for the thirty or so minutes afterward, through the tiny towns of London and Petronila, past the cotton gins and weather-beaten farmhouses and few stop signs and blinking red lights, past the mysterious old tractors, some shrouded under tarps, some parked right where they stopped working, you'll sometimes see a soft haze or mist. 

Why you should read this book: This curated collection of young poets features a refreshing selection of short pieces, four per author. While the subject matter ranges far and wide, one thread that seems to connect them is a groundedness in sense of place; whether the poet is discussing their childhood home, their ancestors' struggles, or observations from travel, the reader feels transported to very specific worlds through each. These are rich, beautiful, mostly hopeful poems, appropriate for children, but often covering important topics such as race and class. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Well, it lies; there are 26 poets jammed in there.

Praise Song for My Children

Written by: Patricia Jabbeh Wesley  

First line: Some of us are made of steel. 

Why you should read this book: This collection of new and selected poems offers a stunning journey through the author's work, the central thesis of which goes something like—the world is very hard and painful but women, by necessity, are tough and good at survival. Wesley's voice carries the reader through the war in Liberia and its aftermath, love and marriage and motherhood, the refugee experience, her fight with cancer, her life in America. Each poem stands as its own microcosm, a perfectly formed bubble of reality and experience, into which the reader can enter and be immersed. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: It took me two months to finish, because I had to put it down every time it made me cry, and it made me cry a *lot*.  

The Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé

Written by: Morgan Parker

First line: I am free with the following conditions.

Why you should read this book: This poetry is powerful and confrontational, forcing the reader to consider the world, and specifically race and sexuality, from multiple unrelenting points of view. Up-to-the-minute modern and uncompromisingly feminist, the book tightly corrals language into beautiful and acrobatic formations to demonstrate joy, pain, frustration, rage, hope, determination, and, over and over again, the place of Beyoncé in American culture. I don't read a lot of poetry and can't really critique it the way I can prose, but I can say that the way the words are strung together in this collection is intense and evocative, creating strong and meaningful images and allowing the reader a new window on the world.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're not impressed with Beyoncé.

M is for Mischief: An A to Z of Naughty Children

Written by: Linda Ashman and Nancy Carpenter

First line: Abby's apt to argue anytime and anyplace.

Why you should read this book: This is not the first alphabet book of naughty children, and it probably won't be the last, but if it's here, now, in front of you, it's a good bet that the children in your life will enjoy hearing about other children who are way worse than them. With lots of alliteration and a simple rhyming scheme, it's a great read-aloud piece, although better suited to riling kids up than calming them down. The illustration style is great fun, mixing cartoony drawings with photographic collage.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Your kids don't need any new ideas concerning ways to misbehave.

Paradise Lost: A Graphic Novel

Written by: John Milton and Pablo Auladell

First line: Sing, heavenly muse...I thence invoke my aid to my adventurous song, that intends to soar above they Aonian Mount...while it pursues things unattemped yet in prose or rhyme.

Why you should read this book: The ultimate Old Testament/New Testament mashup fanfic, the epic Paradise Lost, here presented in graphic format, tells the story of Satan's fall from heaven and his subsequent corruption of Adam and Eve. What is Satan's gripe with god, and why does he want to punish people so much? The answers are all spelled out in this gorgeous, twisted, dark, and inventive volume.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You believe depicting the face of a god is true blasphemy.