Poetry about Weather

Has the weather been crazy where you are?

Here in Texas we had a mostly cold January (as one would expect) and then this week it kept warming up til yesterday it hit 80 degrees! That's nutty, even for (Dallas) Texas. And then I heard there might be four feet of snow coming to the northeast. FOUR FEET! Now I'm heading to Seattle (for the ALA Midwinter conference) and there it is supposed to be chilly and predictably wet. So, of course this got me thinking about the poetry books I know that feature weather as their thematic thread. And there are quite a few! I have found that kids really enjoy weather poetry-- they are very tuned in to the weather (like puppies!) and enjoy how poets describe various weather-y days. In addition, this is a topic that is very appealing to children learning English as a new language. Weather words quickly become part of their conversational vocabulary (Is it raining? I am cold, etc.), so the poetry is accessible and relevant, too. Something to think about!

Poetry about the seasons offers many observations about nature, but some poets focus specifically on the weather in writing for young people. Snow, ice, rain, clouds, storms are all elements that fascinate both children and poets. Check out these examples.

1. Alarcón, Francisco X. 2001. Iguanas in the Snow and Other Winter Poems/ Iguanas en la Nieve y Otros Poemas de Invierno. San Francisco, CA: Children’s Book Press.
2. Bauer, Caroline Feller. Ed. 1986. Snowy Day: Poems and Stories. New York: HarperCollins.
3. Cooper, Kay. 2001. Too Many Rabbits and Other Fingerplays about Animals, Nature, Weather, and Children. New York: Cartwheel Books.
4. Engle, Margarita. 2011. Hurricane Dancers; The First Caribbean Pirate Shipwreck. New York: Henry Holt.
5. Florian, Douglas. 2003. Autumblings. New York: Greenwillow.
6. Francis, Lee. 1999. When The Rain Sings: Poems by Young Native Americans. New York: Simon & Schuster.
7. Gray, Rita. Ed. 2010. One Big Rain; Poems for Rainy Days. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge.
8. High, Linda Oatman. 2004. City of Snow: The Great Blizzard of 1888. New York: Walker.
9. Hopkins, Lee Bennett. Ed. 1994. Weather: Poems for All Seasons. New York: HarperTrophy.
10. Hubbell, Patricia. 2010. Snow Happy! San Francisco: Tricycle Press.
11. Kosaka, Fumi. 2001. Let’s Count the Raindrops. New York: Viking.
12. Levy, Constance. 1998. A Crack in the Clouds. New York: McElderry.
13. Paolilli, Paul and Brewer, Dan. 2001. Silver Seeds. New York: Viking.
14. Prelutsky, Jack. 1984/2006. It’s Snowing! It’s Snowing! Winter Poems. New York: HarperCollins.
15. Salas, Laura Purdie. 2008. Seed Sower, Hat Thrower: Poems About Weather. Minneapolis, MN: Capstone.
16. Yolen, Jane. Ed. 1993. Weather Report. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills.
17. Yolen, Jane. 1998. Snow, Snow:  Winter Poems for Children. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills.
18. Yolen, Jane. Ed. 1997. Once Upon Ice and Other Frozen Poems.  Honesdale, PA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills.

Do you enjoy lists of poetry books? I have over 150 of them in my book, The Poetry Teacher's Book of Lists. This "weather poetry" list is one of them. Check it out! Here's the book-blog with mini-samples of every list.


And join the rest of the Poetry Friday gathering hosted by Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference. See you there!

Watch for my "Sneak Peek" list of forthcoming poetry for 2013 next week.


Image credit: VectorJungle.com

Posting by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2013. All rights reserved.