J. Patrick Lewis, the U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate, seeks to teach the value of thinking like a poet and encourages children’s imaginations to run wild in his editing of the National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry: 200 Poems with Photographs that Squeak, Soar, and Roar! (National Geographic, $24.95). The animals are categorized as big, little, winged, strange, quiet, or noisy and brought to vivid life with the high-quality photography we expect from National Geographic. From the lighthearted description of a butterfly by Benjamin Franklin to the mysterious Inuit poem about the long-ago time when people and animals spoke the same language, this is a collection to share or quietly contemplate alone. Lewis’s own concluding poem, “Make the Earth Your Companion,” and the abundance of indexes and resources about writing poems further enhance this anthology that is perfect for both home and school. All ages. MAG