#CybilsAwards Backlist Booklist: Poetry!

It’s National Poetry Month, and what better way to celebrate than to share some of our favorite books!

There are sooo many good poetry books for kids out there, that I think we’ll narrow it down first by sharing all the winners over the years that Poetry has been a category here at the Cybils Awards. 

To see the finalists of the last 15 years, click on any year at the bottom of the home page, then select “Poetry” from the category menu.

 

Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow
by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Beth Krommes
Houghton Mifflin

2006 Poetry Winner

 

This Is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness
by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski
Houghton Mifflin

2007 Poetry Winner

 

Honeybee
by Naomi Shihab Nye
HarperCollins

2008 Poetry Winner

 

Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors
by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

2009 Poetry Winner

 

Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse
by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Josée Masse
Dutton Books for Young Readers

2010 Poetry Winner

 

Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto
by Paul B. Janeczko
Candlewick

2011 Poetry Winner

 

BookSpeak!: Poems About Books
by Laura Purdie Salas, illustrated by Josée Bisaillon
Clarion Books

2012 Poetry Winner

 

Forest Has a Song: Poems
by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, illustrated by Robbin Gourley
Clarion Books

2013 Poetry Winner

 

Voices from the March on Washington
by J. Patrick Lewis and George Ella Lyon
WordSong

2014 Poetry Winner

 

Flutter and Hum / Aleteo y Zumbido: Animal Poems / Poemas de Animales
by Julie Paschkis
Henry Holt and Co.

2015 Poetry Winner

 

The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary
by Laura Shovan
Yearling

2016 Poetry Winner

 

I’m Just No Good at Rhyming: And Other Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups
by Chris Harris, illustrated by Lane Smith
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

2017 Poetry Winner

 

Long Way Down
by Jason Reynolds
Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books

2018 Poetry Winner

 

Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience
Edited by Patrice Vecchione and Alyssa Raymond
Triangle Square

2019 Poetry Winner

** Poetry was on hiatus in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Everywhere Blue
Joanne Rossmassler Fritz
Holiday House

2021 Poetry Winner