By Jack Prelutsky
More than five hundred poems in one fat book, grouped by subject so you can find a funny one, a short one, or a quiet one for bedtime in about ten seconds.
Jack Prelutsky gathered over five hundred poems into one thick book and sorted them by what they're about — animals, weather, silly nonsense, the city, home, going to sleep. Arnold Lobel, who drew Frog and Toad, illustrated the whole thing. There's no beginning you have to start at and no end you have to reach. You flip to 'nonsense' when everyone's wound up, or to the last section when it's time to settle down, and read one poem or three or ten. Most of it is out-loud silly, and a few are small and quiet.
A poem is about the smallest complete thing a child can read, which makes this a good pick for a chapter-shy reader and for you at the end of a long day, when a whole story feels like too much. It's sorted by subject, so you can land on the right mood fast, and with five hundred of them you won't run through it for years. It also quietly makes the case that poetry isn't a school thing — it's jokes and animals and the exact feeling of a snow day. Mine reached for the same three funny ones for months before wandering into the rest.