Today I’m sharing another poetry picture book by Irene Latham and it’s one of my favorite finds this month.

I poured over this book.  I shared bits of it with my husband.  I marveled at both its simplicity and its genius.  This is a poetry picture book that astounds.

“Nine: a book of Nonet Poems” is another book of brilliant word play.  A nonet is a nine-line poem. The first line contains nine syllables, the second line contains eight, the third line contains seven, and so on. The last line of nonet poetry contains one syllable. The nonet is a poetic form that can contain any rhyming scheme and cover any subject matter.  OR it could be the reverse (1 syllable starting line up to a 9 syllable ending line).

This is NOT an easy form to use and yet, Irene did it.  AND she had fun using topics with “nine” as their theme for every single poem’s subject.  One poem is about the nine-banded armadillo, another about a nonagon.  Think of a subject with a natural 9 in it and it’s probably included here.  The illustrations by Amy Huntington are the icing on the cake here.  They are soft and appealing, friendly and fun, and find the funny in each scene.  I share ONE of my favorites (as always, it was so hard to choose!):

And if you’re looking for more poetry fun this month, be sure to check out the Kidlitosphere Event Roundup!