40 Poems for 40 Weeks: Integrating Meaningful Poetry and Word Ladders into Grades 3–5 Literacy

The stated objective of this collection is to provide librarians “with enough poems written by many of today’s best poets to share one poem a week to the entire student body.” Ultimately, it does meet this goal if unimpressively. Preceding each poem is a photo of the poet and an autobiographical note that includes two book recommendations. These notes are largely written with a child audience in mind yet many also feature lengthy lists of professional accomplishments unlikely to be of great interest to children. Following each poem is a word ladder inspired by the piece. A few brief introductory chapters extol the benefits of using wordplay and poetry in the classroom/school/library, and back matter includes a list of additional titles suggested by the contributors. While many of the contributing poets boast impressive accolades and come from a variety of backgrounds, the lack of racial diversity is tiresome and disappointing.