R is for Rhyme: a Poetry Alphabet by Judy Young

Back to the poetry books. You can find an alphabet book about almost anything under the sun, so why not poetry? For each letter of the alphabet Young chooses a vocabulary word related to poetry. Most of the words are forms of poems, like haiku for H and cinquain for C. A few of the vocabulary words are poetic devices, like end rhyme for E and onomatopoeia for O. For each vocabulary word, Young provides a poem that contains or is an example of the word, and a three to four paragraph explanation of the term. Now, last summer, as my blog readers know, I did a poetry study with my kids, and I can tell you, I wish I had known about this book when I did that study. The poems in the book are decent, but the explanations and the variety of terms is very impressive. If there were someone who, like me, wanted to study poetry at home, they could get this book, take a letter a week, and there would be half a year of poetry lessons. The book is illustrated with full color, pastel drawings that are slightly stylized and fairly amusing. (about 56 p)