How do you make poetry stick for reluctant readers?

Performance poetry first. Slam poetry, spoken word, rap - it removes the page and puts the body back in.

Read it aloud yourself with pleasure. Children absorb your relationship to poetry. If you love it, they will eventually want what you have.

Let them pick from a fat anthology. Ownership changes everything. My reluctant son memorised 40 poems in a year.

Start with Shel Silverstein - funny, accessible, unintimidating. Once they find a poem that makes them laugh, poetry is no longer the enemy.