The National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry

Title: The National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry
Edited by: J. Patrick Lewis
Major Themes: Poetry, Animals
Synopsis: This fun collection of poems about animals is profusely illustrated with gorgeous photographs of animals from around the world.

For the past year, we have been reading a page of The National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry almost every school day. This was my eight-year-old daughter’s favorite part of our reading. I’ve discovered that she loves poetry! That makes it fun to read it to her.

Every page in this book has gorgeous, colorful pictures from the famous National Geographic photographers. They show many different kinds of animals and birds, including sea creatures, along with poems about animals. Most of the poems are about the animals pictured on the page. Some poems are famous, ones I recognized, and other ones were new to me. They were written by a wide variety of people, and are divided into sections such as “the big ones,” “the little ones,” “the winged ones,” etc.

We loved The National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry. Not only were many of the poems fun to read, but the pictures are so beautiful that several of my children have spent a lot of time studying them. The only thing I did not appreciate was a few poems that promote evolution, and that humans are basically animals. What else can you expect from National Geographic, though?

WARNING: The poem on page 23 calls humans and orangutans cousins. The poem on page 167 suggests that long ages ago all living things were one.