I've never been much of a poet; at least my college English professor didn't think so. He was a nice enough guy, bought me a Christmas present, POETRY FOR DUMMIES. I still correspond with him from time to time. We don't correspond much about poetry, not sure we would even if he hadn't bought me that book. I did ask him about some good poetry books for children once (last Thursday to be precise). He sardonically recommended Milton's PARADISE LOST, so they could teach it to me. I chuckled as a means of covering up my humiliation, which I'm now over, by the way. I really am. Just ask my therapist.

When you can't get help from an arrogant professor who treats you like a troglodyte, the next best place is the public library (The first version of this article had an incredibly humorous interchange between me and the librarian, but I had to cut it out due to space constraints, which is why the transition into my next sentence seems a bit choppy). Without further adieu, here are the winners of the first ever, go to the public library, pick out 20 children's poetry books that have cool pictures on the front, read them to your children, and bribe them with ice cream to choose the top five poetry books of all time extravaganza:

(In no particular order)

A CHILD'S FIRST BOOK OF POEMS, A GOLDEN BOOK with pictures by Cyndy Szekeres: Filled with poems of animals, both of the anthropomorphic and non-anthropomorphic variety, A CHILD'S FIRST BOOK OF POEMS delighted my two children. My son walked around for a few minutes imitating an elephant after reading "The Handiest Nose" by Aileen Fisher. He would have done it longer, but he whacked his arm on the kitchen table. After tending to his injury, he sat back down and enjoyed a few more classic animal poems by Emily Dickinson, Robert Louis Stevenson, Walter de la Mare, and others. My daughter remained fascinated with the three poems about mice: "The City Mouse and the Garden Mouse" by Christina Rosetti, "Mice," and "Wanted" by Rose Fyleman. After she ran to me screaming at three in the morning because she swore she saw a mouse, I realized that maybe the mice poems were a bit much right before bed.

MOTHER GOOSE and FRIENDS, selected and illustrated by Ruth Sanderson: No matter how hard you work, or creative you try to be, you'll never outwit Mother Goose when it comes to children's poetry. I've no explanation for it: "Hickory, Dickory, Dock. The mouse ran up the clock!" What in the world does that mean?

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