15 Play Poems to Encourage Reading in Children

Reading is a fundamental skill that all children must learn. As children begin to read, it’s essential to make the process enjoyable and exciting for them. One way to do this is by incorporating fun rhymes about books and reading into their learning.

These rhymes can help children develop their language skills and encourage them to continue reading throughout their lives. In this article, we have compiled 15 fun rhymes about books and reading for kids that are sure to make reading a blast!

Amazing play poems that will inspire your kids to read more

Read to Me – by Jane Yolen

Read to me riddles and read to me rhymes

Read to me stories of magical times

Read to me tales about castles and kings

Read to me stories of fabulous things

Read to me pirates and read to me knights

Read to me dragons and dragon-book fights

Read to me spaceships and cowboys and then

When you are finished – please read them again

Reading in Bed – by Helen H. Moore

Oh, what could be better

Than reading in bed,

Or thinking about

All the books that you’ve read?

With someone who loves you,

A father, a mother,

A doll, or a pet,

Or a sister or brother,

A grandma, a grandpa,

An uncle, an aunt –

(Can you think of anything better?

I can’t!)

While outside the sky

Is all twinkling with light,

From stars that shine down

As we sleep through the night.

Oh, what could be better

Than sleeping in bed,

When the books that you love

Fill the dreams in your head?

I Met a Dragon Face to Face – by Jack Prelutsky

I met a dragon face to face

the year when I was ten,

I took a trip to outer space,

I braved a pirate’s den,

I wrestled with a wicked troll,

and fought a great white shark,

I trailed a rabbit down a hole,

I hunted for a snark.

I stowed aboard a submarine,

I opened magic doors,

I traveled in a time machine,

and searched for dinosaurs,

I climbed atop a giant’s head,

I found a pot of gold,

I did all this in books I read

when I was ten years old.

I Opened a Book – by Julia Donaldson

I opened a book and in I strode.

Now nobody can find me.

I’ve left my chair, my house, my road,

My town and my world behind me.

I’m wearing the cloak, I’ve slipped on the ring,

I’ve swallowed the magic potion.

I’ve fought with a dragon, dined with a king

And dived in a bottomless ocean.

I opened a book and made some friends.

I shared their tears and laughter

And followed their road with its bumps and bends

To the happily ever after.

I finished my book and out I came.

The cloak can no longer hide me.

My chair and my house are just the same,

But I have a book inside me.

Library Poem – by Julia Donaldson

Everyone is welcome to walk through the door.

It really doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor.

There are books in boxes and books on shelves.

They’re free for you to borrow, so help yourselves.

Come and meet your heroes, old and new,

From William the Conqueror to Winnie the Pooh.

You can look into the Mirror or read The Times,

Or bring along a toddler to chant some rhymes.

The librarian’s a friend who loves to lend,

So see if there’s a book that she can recommend.

Read that book, and if you’re bitten

You can borrow all the other ones the author’s written.

Are you into battles or biography?

Are you keen on gerbils or geography?

Gardening or ghosts? Sharks or science fiction?

There’s something here for everyone, whatever your addiction.

Reading is Fun – By Mark Beckwith

Reading is fun, fun fun fun

Reading is fun for everyone

I can see

I can tell

You really read so well

I do

Read too

I can read all by myself

Reading the adventures of Peter Pan

Reading about the powers of Robot Man

Reading how to build my own new bike

Reading about the movies stars I like

Reading a story about the wild old west

Reading about the pirates and their treasure chest

Reading about the monsters late at night

Reading in the sheets with my best flashlight

A Book is a Place – by Clyde Watson

A book is a place

where you can go

whenever you wish:

just open it up

and step in!

For if you can read

you can sail seven seas,

explore lost kingdoms

with magic keys…

Climb snowy mountains,

Fly to the moon,

Speak with ghosts,

Hear mermaids croon…

Swim with whales

through sea-green depths,

Tame wild horses and…

When you come back

and close your book

and sit there with a dreamy,

faraway look…

It’s because you know

you can go

anywhere you wish

just open a book

and step in!

Books – By Helen H. Moore

If you read a few, then you’ll know it’s true:

Books are good for you!

Chefs read cook books,

Pirates? “Hook” books!

Little kids read lift-and-look books!

We read books of poems and prose –

Some of these and some of those.

Read some too, and you’ll agree,

Books are good for you and me!

I Love to Read a Mystery – by Kenn Nesbitt

I love to read a mystery.

It’s my favorite kind of book.

There’s one I like a lot about

a butler and a cook.

I had it here this morning.

It was in my reading nook.

But now my book is missing.

Was it stolen by a crook?

Could they have used a fishing pole

to snag it with a hook?

I wonder if my mystery was

the only thing they took?

I hope that I can find it.

Will you come and help me look?

Then we can solve “The Mystery

of the Missing Mystery Book.”

Open A Book – by Jane Baskwill

Open a book

And you will find

People and places of every kind;

Open a book

And you can be

Anything that you want to be;

Open a book

And you can share

Wondrous worlds you find in there;

Open a book

And I will too

You read to me

And I’ll read to you.

Books! Books! – by Lenore Hetrick

I feel there’s just one song to sing –

And that’s a song of books!

I can’t think of another thing,

Except them and their looks.

All year companions, these bleak soldiers

Never left my side.

Summer evenings, winter dawns –

With me they did abide.

Books! Books! Right and left!

Knowledge by the yard.

Books! Books! Build and heft,

And problems daunting hard.

Books with dates and books with songs,

And books that make you cry.

Books that like great city throngs

Went ever surging by.

Awake it was a world of books!

There is no Frigate like a Book – By Emily Dickinson

There is no Frigate like a Book

To take us Lands away

Nor any Coursers like a Page

Of prancing Poetry.

This Traverse may the poorest take

Without oppress of Toll;

How frugal is the Chariot

That bears the Human Soul!

Pass The Poems, Please – By Jane Baskwill

Pass the poem please

Pile them on my plate

Put them right in front of me

For I can hardly wait

To take each tangy word

To try each tasty rhyme

And when I’ve tried them once or twice

I’ll try them one more time:

So pass the poems please

They just won’t leave my head

I have to have more poems

Before I go to bed.

The Land of Story-Books – by Robert Louis Stevenson

These are the hills, these are the woods,

These are my starry solitudes;

And there the river by whose brink

The roaring lions come to drink.

I see the others far away

As if in firelit camp they lay,

And I, like to an Indian scout,

Around their party prowled about.

So, when my nurse comes in for me,

Home I return across the sea,

And go to bed with backward looks

At my dear land of Story-books …

Good Books – by Edgar Albert Guest

Good books are friendly things to own.

If you are busy they will wait.

They will not call you on the phone

Or wake you if the hour is late.

They stand together row by row,

Upon the low shelf or the high.

But if you’re lonesome this you know:

You have a friend or two nearby.

The fellowship of books is real.

They’re never noisy when you’re still.

They won’t disturb you at your meal.

They’ll comfort you when you are ill.

The lonesome hours they’ll always share.

When slighted they will not complain.

And though for them you’ve ceased to care

Your constant friends they’ll still remain.

Good books your faults will never see

Or tell about them round the town.

If you would have their company

You merely have to take them down.

They’ll help you pass the time away,

They’ll counsel give if that you need.

He has true friends for night and day