11 Great Audiobooks for National Poetry Month
by Kate Smith
Embrace National Poetry Month by celebrating the spoken word with audiobooks! Hearing poetry read aloud helps us understand the craft and cadence involved in verse and can strengthen overall reading comprehension for kids of all ages. So whether you’re looking to listen as a family or enjoy alone, we have joyous and heartfelt audiobooks in verse to share for all ages.
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Llama Llama Red Pajama and 19 Other Favorites
Llama Llama fans will love this collection of 19 favorites from Anna Dewdney’s bestselling series, many narrated by the author herself, plus Nelly Gnu and Daddy Too.
Ages 2-5; available in digital download
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Remember
US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s iconic poem “Remember” invites young listeners to reflect on the wonder of the world around them and remember the importance of their place within it. This audiobook is strikingly read by Harjo herself.
Ages 4-8; available in digital download
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Can We Please Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers?
Based on the viral poem by Coretta Scott King honoree Junauda Petrus, this picture book debut — adapted for audio — imagines a radically positive future where police aren’t in charge of public safety and community well-being. A joyously radical vision of community-based safety and mutual aid, it is optimistic, provocative, and ultimately centered in fierce love.
Ages 4-8; available in digital download
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Change Sings
In this stirring, much-anticipated audiobook by presidential inaugural poet and activist Amanda Gorman, anything is possible when our voices join together. With lyrical text, Change Sings is a triumphant call to action for everyone to use their abilities to make a difference.
Ages 4-8; available in digital download
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Aniana del Mar Jumps In
A poignant story about chronic illness and disability, the secrets between mothers and daughters, the harm
we do to the ones we love the most — and all the triumphs, big and small, that keep us afloat. This story shines in the audiobook format, amplified by the narration of author Jasminne Mendez, an award-winning Latina performance poet.Ages 8-12; available in digital download
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Eb & Flow
Award-winning author Kelly J. Baptist delivers a novel in verse that follows Eb and Flow as they navigate their parallel lives. Single-parent homes, tight funds, and sibling dynamics provide a balancing act for the growing tweens. And whether they realize it or not, these two have much more in common than they think. Joniece Abbott-Pratt and Aaron Goodson’s dual narration connects listeners to both kids’ sides of the story and beautifully brings them together for a heart-racing ending.
Ages 8-10; available in digital download
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A Seed in the Sun
A farm-working girl with big dreams meets activist Dolores Huerta and joins the 1965 protest for workers’ rights in this tender-hearted novel in verse, perfect for fans of Rita Williams-Garcia and Pam Muñoz Ryan.
Ages 8-12; available in digital download
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Rez Dogs
Renowned author Joseph Bruchac tells a powerful story of a girl who learns more about her Penacook heritage while sheltering in place with her grandparents during the coronavirus pandemic. This novel highlights how Indigenous nations and communities cared for one another through plagues of the past and how they keep caring for one another today. Told in verse and inspired by oral storytelling, the author’s narration augments the text in its audiobook format.
Ages 8-12; available in digital download
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Alma Presses Play
A lyrical novel-in-verse that takes us through the journey of coming of age in New York during the 80s. Alma’s life is a series of halfways: She’s half-Chinese, half-Jewish; her parents spend half the time fighting and the other half silent; and she’s halfway through becoming a woman. But as long as she can listen to her Walkman, hang out with her friends on the stoops of the Village, and ride her bike around the streets of New York, it feels like everything will be all right . . . until everything changes.
Ages 12+; available in digital download
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Enter the Body
In a room beneath a stage’s trapdoor, Shakespeare’s dead teenage girls compare their experiences and retell the stories of their lives, loves, and fates in their own words. This full-cast narration, led by the author in the role of the narrator and trap room, magnifies their stories and their growing support of one another. Shakespeare was meant to be performed, and this adage is true for retellings.
Ages 14+; available in digital download
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The Ghosts of Rose Hill
Sent to stay with her aunt in Prague and witness the humble life of an artist, Ilana Lopez — a biracial Jewish girl discovers a forgotten Jewish cemetery behind her aunt’s cottage. With spellbinding verse prose, R.M. Romero channels the spirit of myth into a brilliantly original tale, inspired by her experiences restoring Jewish cemeteries in Eastern Europe.
Ages 14+; available in digital download
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