Poem in My Pocket by Chris Tougas and Josee Bisaillon is a celebration of words and a reminder to share your words with others.

A young poet leaves home with a poem in their pocket but quite quickly that poem is blown into the wind and sails off on an adventure of its own. The words go whirling and swirling all sound town evading the poet at every turn until they find a wonderful place to land.

Rhyming stories are a lot of fun to read but if the rhyme is not quite right, readers can stumble and lose the rhythm of the story. Poem in My Pocket completely avoids those pitfalls of forced rhymes and interrupted rhythms. It is a ton of fun to read, especially out loud to a friend to a friend or a group of children. This book totally lends itself to a dramatic reading so if you are a teacher be sure to check it out. There are a lot of ways you could use this story in a poetry unit! I love all of the words that go tumbling out and dance across the pages and young readers and their parents may even be inspired to find those words and turn them into a poem of their very own.

Josee Bissailon’s illustrations are swirling and twirling right along with the words of the poem. She has put so much movement into her paper collage illustrations that readers will feel like tumbling and stumbling along with the words as they go flying around. Also, the little bird (chicken?) in the illustrations is hilarious and so expressive!!

The author notes at the back of the book that April is National Poetry Month, although we are a little late this year, there is certainly some value to sharing poems all year long and especially when the weather warms up and we can be inspired by the beauty popping up all around us!