Independent Reading Level: K-3rd
Awards: Charlotte Zolotow Award 1998-2024, ALSC Notable Children's Books 1995-2024, CCBC Choices Selection 2017, Ezra Jack Keats Award 1986-2024

Independent Reading Level: 5-8 years old/ Grade Levels: K-3rd
Awards & Honors: Charlotte Zolotow Award, 1998-2024, ALSC Notable Children's Books, 1995-2024, CCBC Choices, Ezra Jack Keats Award, 1986-2024, Teacher Favorites Award, 2015-2024.

Daniel Finds a Poem is great for early elementary students. In this story, Daniel is trying to find out what poetry is. He asks all of his friends and they tell him what poetry is to them. This is a great picture book to introduce what poetry is to young students. It will expand their understanding beyond a rhyming poem. The collage illustrations help enhance the story.

5 - 8 Years ( )

Reading level: Grades K-3, Lexile AD560L
Awards: Ezra Jack Keats Book Award, Charlotte Zolotow Award, ALSC Notable Children's Books, CCBC Choices, ILA Teachers' Choices Reading List

What is poetry? Is it glistening morning dew? Spider thinks so. Is it crisp leaves crunching? That’s what Squirrel says. Could it be a cool pond, sun-warmed sand, or moonlight on the grass? Maybe poetry is all of these things, as it is something special for everyone—you just have to take the time to really look and listen. The magical thing is that poetry is in everyone, and Daniel is on his way to discovering a poem of his own after spending time with his animal friends. What is poetry? If you look and listen, it’s all around you!

The paper-collage style art, like a more intricate, realist, vibrant Eric Carle, is the highlight of this book. My five-year-old took exception with its definition of "poem," but I think Daniel and his animal friends have a point. ( )

What is poetry? Is it morning dew? Is it crisp leaves crunching? Could it be a cool pond? Maybe poetry is all of these things...and more. Daniel is on his way to creating his own poem after visiting his animal friends. This story celebrates the poetry found in the world around us.

In this book a young boy is trying to figure out what poetry is. He asked all kinds of creatures. They each have a different answer that describes poetry. In the end, Daniel combines all that the creatures told him into his own poem. He continues to see poetry in the world around him. It won the Ezra Jack Keats Award.

diverse picture book (poetry, nature/outdoors, city animals; preschool/kinder ages 4 and up)
* Prominently features diverse characters: Daniel appears to be of mixed ethnicity, part African-American (his dad, or someone who could be his dad, has medium-toned skin and straight black hair). The other park-goers share varying shades of skin color.
* Could work for small groups of storytime preschoolers, but probably better suited for older kids - the text is a bit long and very poetic, so would make a nice introduction to a poetry unit. Illustrations are beautiful, though, and as a one-on-one story this is a nice quiet story to listen to and absorb. ( )

This book is about a boy named Daniel who takes a trip to the park and along the way he notices a sign that displays a poetry meeting. Daniel is curious about what poetry is and the book takes you along his journey discovering various tools that help you build poetry. Ultimately the book displays that poetry is all around you. This book is great for the classroom because it introduces kids to early poetry mechanics such as onomatopoeia, alliterations, metaphors, etc. ( )

For beginning readers. Daniel asks his animal friends about poetry and how to find a poem. They all give him a unique answer based on how they view poetry. This would be a great introduction into children's poetry, because it explains poetry in a simple way. The illustrations were filled with colors that made the story come to life. ( )

It is a very cute book that Ould be great to use as an introduction into a poetry unit. It shows a kid around your students age being interested in poetry and hearing what poetry is to a large variety of people.

This book is about a boy named Daniel who spends a lot of time with the animals in park near his home. One day at the park Daniel sees a sign about poetry at the park and asks all his animal friends what poetry is, and they all give him their own unique answer as to what they think poetry is. By the end of the story, when Daniel finally gets to attend poetry at the park, Daniel has his own very unique poem which he has created from all the different descriptions from his animal friends. I think this would be a great book to read to elementary children when introducing them to poetry. ( )

A book that answers the curious question about poetry. I enjoyed reading this book as it used the world around us to teach young readers about poetry. I really enjoyed the illustrations in the book. it was loaded with lots of beautiful colors and pictures that makes reading easy. ( )

I enjoyed the book “Daniel Finds a Poem” for a lot of reasons. First, this book is about one of my favorite things to do in my spare time, which is write poetry. The book was fun to read and Daniel was inspired by a multitude of things which gave him the opportunity to write a poem. I believe that is how good poems come into fruition is when inspiration is at its core. This was a book that was great to read to children and feed their imaginations like it did mine. The illustrations were bright and popped which kept me intrigued. This book relates to so many kids in a way that they can create their own explanation for what something means to them in the book. Overall, I believe that this book does a great job of creating growth for children. ( )

Daniel listens as his animal friends try to help him discover poetry; where is it, what is it and how can Daniel get it? Along the way Daniel discovers that he is on the way to creating a poem of his own. ( )

This story is about Daniel, he comes across an ad for poetry in the park. Daniel does not know what poetry is, he then asks all the animals what poetry is. They all give their own opinions what they believe poetry is. At the end every answer the animals gave is turned into a nice poem.

I would use this book to introduce poetry with first or second grade. I would explain how the poems explained nature and in a beautiful way. I would have my students then write a poem about what they see outside. ( )

On Monday, Daniel sees a sign in the park that says "Poetry in the Park on Sunday". Daniel does not know what poetry is, so each day of the week we asks the animals he finds in the park what poetry is. Each animal gives Daniel a line of poetry in response. On Sunday, Daniel repeats all the lines the animals have given him throughout the week and makes a poem to preform at the park.

I would use this book with grades K-3rd. Some activities you could teach with this book are poetry, days of the week, and animals. ( )

I really enjoyed this book, I’ve never read anything like it! The book was one big poem telling a story. I also like how the book was so easy and predictable to read. I think this is great for young readers who are just being introduced to poetry. The book is told in first person by the main character Daniel. On each page, Daniel asks a different animal in nature what they think the word “poetry” means. For example, “Mr. Turtle, what does poetry mean to you?” The writing was very original and creative because at the end, the main poem was made up of all the things that the animals said poetry meant to them. The illustrations were very bright and exciting, so this made the book much more interesting to read as well. This book sends out a great message to readers that, poetry is all around us wherever we look, and that people can have their own perspectives of what poetry actually is! I highly recommend to others to read this book with their young ones. ( )

This book was similar to what we had talked about in class today with "Book", basically making poetry what ever you thought it to be to you. I love the use of animals telling Daniel what they thought poetry was. I wish animals could talk back, we might learn a bunch more from them. I love how each animal related to the thing they liked most or a part of their environment, and then Daniel took it all and put it together to make a really great poem to share. ( )

I liked this book for two reasons. First, I liked the format of the book. It was interesting to see a book that was one big poem telling a story. I also liked that there was a predictable pattern to the story. This made the story more engaging and fun to read. The second reason why I liked this book was because of the characters. I liked that each animal had a different idea of what poetry meant to them, and that all of these ideas came together in the end to create one poem. Having all the characters be animals instead of people like Daniel gave this book a fun fantasy element and made the story more interesting to read. The main idea of this book is that poetry is all around us and it is different for everyone. ( )

I like this book for a couple of reasons. First, it discusses poetry in a story plot. Rather than me having to read the poem directly, the character and the reader go along to search for what a poem is and inadvertently find a multitude of them. Daniel asks many different animals about what a poem is and is given many different answers. This portrays that poetry is fluid and is based on each persn’s perspective. I noticed that many described their homes or surroundings as poetry. The second reason I enjoy this book is that the story doesn't just end when Daniel gets all the answers. He applies what he learns into creating one of his own. He even attends a poetry reading to share his thoughts! I thought this was a beautiful ending because Daniel took what he learned and added to it with his own thoughts.
The main idea is that poetry is everywhere. Daniel goes on with his day and notices that everything can become poetry in the eye of the beholder.
This book is a fiction poetry book because it has the contents of poetry but with fantastic elements such as talking animals. ( )

This book is a top favorite to many! This book shows how poetry can connect to different things to everyone’s life. It about this little boy who is on his quest to figure out what the meaning of poetry really means and what it is too him. It is important to open your eyes and view the world for how beautiful it really is if you look outside of the box. This also relates to how Daniel and the animals all looked at poetry differently throughout the story. This can be brought into to teach in the classroom for all ages from first through fourth grade as it helps explain and gives an idea of what poetry means to the little boy and it also helps explain it can be show a different meaning to everyone. ( )

Daniel sees a sign in the park for a poetry night. He wonder all week what poetry is and asks various animals what they think. At the end of the week he has written a poem combining all of the animal's ideas of poetry.