Famous Rhyming Poems for Kids Book makes reading an engaging

This poetry anthology, collected by anthologist Lee Bennet Hopkins according to its own description, pulls together short poems from well-known children's writers, Karla Kuskin, Jack Prelutsky, and Arnold Lobel among them, all built around the experience of reading itself. At 35 pages and aimed at ages 1 to 3, it's sized and paced for read-aloud sessions rather than independent reading, published as a paperback by StarWalk Kids Media. The poems favor rhythm and rhyme over narrative, which suits an age group that responds to sound and cadence well before it's following a plot.

The poems shift tone page to page since they come from several different writers rather than one voice, so a toddler who tunes out of one poem's rhythm has a good chance of perking back up for the next. The subject matter staying close to books and reading gives caregivers an easy way to talk about what a poem is doing while it's happening, pointing at the page and the words on it at the same time. A good pick for the stretch of toddlerhood when a child wants the same short pieces read again and again.