Rest . . . Assured

Sometimes it escapes us.  Other times it's all we want to do. Nevertheless, we wake each morning, grateful, but also wondering why the night, our time of rest, passes so quickly.  In those hours of slumber our brains are busy helping us.  During our sleep we dream; at times some fragments are remembered or perhaps whole stories unfold.  We humans need sleep, but we are not alone in this need.

Other residents of this planet, Earth, sleep.  A Songbird Dreams of Singing: Poems about Sleeping Animals (Running Press Kids, Hachette Book Group, November 5, 2019) written by Kate Hosford with illustrations by Jennifer M. Potter explores through poetry, informational text and eloquent images forms of sleep in eighteen animals living in water, on land and in the air. For them sleep is as distinctive as they are.

A Note from the Author
Did you know humans are able to survive longer without food than they can without sleep?

In this one-page informative note from the author, a discussion of sleep piques our interest with fascinating facts.  We find ourselves hardly able to wait to turn the page.  When we do, we are astounded.

Sperm whales we are told sleep vertically; sometimes tail up, sometimes tail down.  They do this, at most, sixty-five feet below the water's surface.  On land in the nearly treeless savannah, giraffes prefer to sleep standing up.  Their naps, no longer than eleven minutes, are key to surviving their predators.  And speaking of their predators, the sleeping habits of male, female and young lions are different.  They are dictated by bugs, buffalo and roles in their society.

Brave are the sea otters who sleep on the water, holding hands to stay together.  Did you know ocelots are crepuscular?  Do you know the definition of crepuscular?  It's safe to say spiny dogfish sharks sleep as they swim.  If they stop swimming, they are unable to breathe.  You won't believe how they navigate!

The next time you see mallard ducks resting in a row, notice the ones on either end.  Their outside eye performs a vital function, as does half of their brain.  Can you imagine sleeping on air, unable to rest on land or water?  What a marvelous wonder are the frigate birds!

There is an ode to a snail removed from a desert in Egypt in 1846.  It was thought the shell was empty until . . . four years later.  When next spring comes and the peepers sing, remember what courses through their blood to keep them alive as they hibernate. We know their societies are highly evolved.  We know they are far smaller than we are, but a sixty second snooze is much, much too short.  The function of sleep is amazing and so are the animals who rely on it to exist.


After her introduction author Kate Hosford pens poems which read like lullabies.  Each one addresses the habits of the animals while employing rhyming rhythms and repetition of phrases.  Alliteration elevates the cadence.

Opposite each poem, on the left, is at least one paragraph placed on the right describing the facts known about the creature.  Within these facts terms perhaps unknown are defined in the context of the explanations. Here is a partial poem and its accompanying partial factual account.

How the Sloth Sleeps

Green algae grows upon her back.
She eats a little for a snack
And sleeps all day above the ground
Upside down, just hanging around.

At night she'll climb with two-toed feet
While looking for some leaves to eat.
She hides and chews without a sound
Upside down, just hanging around.

Two-Toed Sloths
Found in the Amazon rainforest, nocturnal two-toed sloths can sleep up to sixteen hours a day, often while hanging upside down from a tree branch.  Sloths also like to sleep curled up in a ball in the fork of a tree.  At night, two-toed sloths wake and eat leaves.  Because the leaves give them very little energy or muscle tone, sloths must conserve energy by moving slowly and hardly ever leaving their trees.


Five of the featured animals are found nestled into the landscape of delicate flowers and leafy trees on the front of the matching dust jacket and book case.  The deep blue canvas used here frequently appears within the interior of the book.  The scrolled font on the title contributes to the feeling of peace present in the poems.  On the front of the dust jacket the leaves and stems are embossed in gold foil.  This depiction is lovely, simply lovely.

To the left, on the back, an interior image is used.  It's of the sleeping sperm whales; some with tails up, some with tails down.  A bit of light shines from above illuminating the swimming youngster on the surface and depicting a realm of shadowy contrasts.

On the opening and closing endpapers a soothing wide-angle panorama of the tops of forest evergreens spans from left to right.  Above it the Milky Way and a multitude of other stars carpet the night sky, a sky in hues of blue.  Illustrator Jennifer M. Potter continues to create lush, eloquent scenes for each animal throughout the book.

Her single-page pictures focus on the habitat and the animal in their most graceful poses of sleep.  If an animal is known to sleep in more than one posture, she does showcase it.  Some of her images are framed in a crisp, clean white and others fill the entire page.  These visuals are sensory, conveying a specific atmosphere.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is for the zebra finch.  We are brought close to the sleeping male bird.  He is resting on and among flowery branches with pale pink flowers.  These flowers provide a pleasing contrast to the night sky and his coloring.  He has distinctive feathers on his sides, a rusty shade with white spots.  His cheeks are orange and black stripes appear on his throat and on his creamy white breast. His beak is a brilliant orange.


Words and images, beautiful to behold harmonize wonderfully with the factual information in A Songbird Dreams of Singing: Poems about Sleeping Animals written by Kate Hosford with illustrations by Jennifer M. Potter.  As a read aloud with a group or one-on-one, this presents information while offering comforting scenes.  It opens the door to discussions and further research.  A two-page glossary is included at the end.  An extensive list of persons in the acknowledgements supplies us with the knowledge of author Kate Hosford's fact-checking.  This is a gentle gem you'll want to have in your personal and professional collections.

To learn more about Kate Hosford and Jennifer M. Potter and their other work, please follow the links attached to their names to access their respective websites.  Kate Hosford has accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  Jennifer M. Potter has accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  Kate Hosford is interviewed at author Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations about this book and at the Nerdy Book Club  she talks about this title. 


Be sure to visit the site, Kid Lit Frenzy, hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to view the other titles selected this week by participants in the 2019 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

Family...All Of Us

Every day a signal is given; a call to action.  You may not be aware but you can and need to adjust your perceptions.  It might be in the song of a black-capped chickadee, the tracks of a white-tailed deer encased in mud or a footfall crackling leaves and twigs in the underbrush.  No matter where humans call home, it is shared by a multitude of beings in the animal kingdom.  We should recognize them, realizing without our help their numbers will continue to diminish.  Every one lost makes this world, our planet, less than it was.

We are connected to all of them as members of a huge collective family.  Animal Ark: Celebrating Our Wild World In Poetry And Pictures (National Geographic, February 14, 2017) photographs by Joel Sartore and words by Kwame Alexander with Mary Rand Hess and Deanna Nikaido is a moving and memorable tribute to our animal companions.  It is a collaborative labor of love.

chorus of creatures
singing our names
see what we can save---together

Through the selected words, like Mother Nature's heartbeat, we are asked to look into the soul of her children through their eyes, in the color of their feathers or how they move.  We are asked to appreciate their homes, fixed or mobile.  We are asked to understand their cleverness in surviving.

Sometimes the noise they make is loud like Asian elephants walking or so quiet as to be nearly silent like an Andrew beach mouse running.  Animals can dance and sing, fly like a superhero or be as still as stone. They can be beautiful and deadly to prey and humans or simply, uniquely beautiful.

Their stunning hues shimmer in the sea or glisten on land sometimes changing for protection.  Wolves howl alone or in a chorus.  Have you heard them?

The animal babies born are a sign of hope and a chance to do what is right.  After they grow we can see their more than one hundred feet or the warning tattoos of red like on the Southern black widow spider or their roar like the critically endangered Malayan tiger.  We need them all.  They all, every single one, need us.


Whether read silently or aloud the words penned by Kwame Alexander with Mary Rand Hess and Deanna Nikaido resonate, speaking directly to our conscience and our sensory impressions.  Each line, each poem, creates a thoughtful link with the featured creature.  The cadence supplied using Japanese haiku focuses our attention on the singular characteristics of each one.  Here is another poem above a row of Ploughshare tortoises.

homes of courage
on humble backs
this is not a race


Throughout this title photographer Joel Sartore uses a crisp white or velvet black background to showcase the animals.  In his own words he states:

In Photo Ark every creature is equal.  I use simple black and white backgrounds, which make all animals appear to be the same size, no matter how large or small they might be in the wild.

Who can resist the facial expression of the brown-throated sloth on the front of the dust jacket with the Eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly dotting the i?  To the left, on the back, an equally-happy appearing chimpanzee is shown.  On the book case front a red celestial eye goldfish is looking right at readers while on the back a quokka looks like he is laughing. The opening and closing endpapers share the same shade as the text Ark.

Alternating between black on the first seven pages and white on the next four pages Sartore first showcases a cream-spotted tigerwing butterfly chrysalis and Gulf fritillary butterfly on the title page followed by a two-page gatefold highlighting twenty-nine animals opposite the opening lines of poetry.  When that gatefold is closed we are privy to eight stunning butterflies.  Each animal is given a single page or two showing us their entire body or a significant portion in the remainder of the book.

In the center is a four-page gatefold presenting thirty-three animals group on the two outer pages with a melodious lengthier poem on the inner two pages.  These collages of animal portraits, as are all the pictures, are stunning.  The closing of this gatefold reveals two resting blue waxbills.  To see them in the wild would be unforgettable.

One of my favorite of many photographs is of the waxy monkey frog.  Sartore has captured this frog in mid leap or ready to leap with the right rear leg raised.  You wouldn't know it to look at this picture but they only grow to be two to three inches long.  He brings us close enough to see the spread toes, spots on the belly and intricate details in the eyes.


All the creators desire to have readers notice these animals in a new light, bringing us close to their importance in the grand scheme of life on this planet.  Joel Sartore and Kwame Alexander with Mary Rand Hess and Deanna Nikaido have accomplished this mission in Animal Ark: Celebrating Our Wild World In Poetry And Pictures.  At the close of the title a page is dedicated to A Note From the Photographer and A Note From the Writer.  A small captioned box within this second note speaks about haiku.  A final gatefold names all the animals shown on the dust jacket, book case, flap and interior pages other than those named in previous gatefolds.

To learn more about Joel Sartore, Kwame Alexander, Mary Rand Hess and Deanna Nikaido and their other work please visit their websites by following the links attached to their names.  At a publisher's website you can view some interior pages.  A page at National Geographic Kids with links and videos is dedicated to the Animal Ark project and this book.  Enjoy Kwame Alexander reading the long poem taken from the center of the book.


Animal Ark: Celebrating our Wild World in Poetry and Pictures from cosproductions on Vimeo.

Seen And Unseen, Earth's Residents

There can never be enough.  There can never be too much.  The more knowledge and understanding we have about how the natural world works, the better able we are to preserve and protect its riches and value to all life.  The task of caring for our planet and its inhabitants is a continuous challenge.  Sometimes it seems as if we move forward a single step, then back two.

Even a small piece of information can promote admiration or awe.  In a companion title to Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature author and zoologist Nicola Davies has penned a collection of poems which both inform and inspire.  A First Book of Animals (Walker Books, October 6, 2016) with illustrations by Petr Horacek takes us to every corner of the world; we journey beneath the waters, across the land and soar in the air.

Divided into five sections, Big And Small, Colours And Shapes, Animal Homes, Animal Babies and Animals In Action, these fifty poems create a living landscape.  At the close of each of the five portions, two pages are devoted to discussions about animal categories, animal camouflage and warnings, parasites, eggs and animals that use tools.  It's a portable enchanting exhibition.

BIG AND SMALL
Blue Whale
Words can't describe a blue whale's size.
Big and huge and large don't work.
Even enormous, vast, gigantic aren't enough.
But when you hear a blue whale's blow---
a deep per-wuffing sound that makes you think
of caverns, caves and concert halls---
and see its breath punch upwards
like a house-high exclamation mark,
you know that it's the biggest creature
there has ever been.

Close your eyes.  Now think of a bird so large and another bird so small that it can fit inside the large bird's eye and you will have identified the ostrich and a particular hummingbird.  Elephants living in Asia and elephants living in Africa have an identical physical trait with one notable difference.  Who knew?  Have you ever wondered how ants can find food so easily? When it is discovered a scent trail is left for others to follow.

When you think of flamingos you think pink.  Why pink?  One hump or two humps, depending on the camel, help them survive.  The clever bird who weaves a nest is waiting for a companion.  It hangs from a branch with an opening at the bottom.  Certainly their shells offer safety but they also keep them wet not dry.  This is the life of a snail.

Anemones which look like colorful stems sting some but are a haven for clownfish.  Animal relationships are a puzzle but also a wonder.  Some mothers lay their eggs and leave, never to return.  Other mothers give birth and cuddle their young.  Would you rather be a sea turtle or a gorilla?  Name two animals with fathers that tend the eggs.  Here are some clues.  One is under the sea and the other is in the coldest place on the planet.  One does not neigh and the other does not fly no matter how hard its flippers are flapped.

A slow moving sloth turns green as tiny plants hook to its fur.  Bees may not know how to communicate with us but they do speak with steps and wiggles to convey distance and direction to their hive mates.  There is so much to learn.  There is so much to know.  This is what we need to do to help our animal friends live and grow.


A variety of poetic styles and use of language depict beauty, even if deadly, in the animal world in this collection. Nicola Davies weaves truth into her free verse, rhymes and alliteration like a master artisan creating an elegant tapestry.  She gives a voice to each animal by connecting us to them with her words.  We zip but do not buzz with the bumblebee bat.  We stalk with the deadly komodo dragon that does not need flames to fashion fear.  We turn streams into a lake with the engineering skills of beavers.  Here is another poem.

The Swiftest Sailfish
Fast and fierce:
Fin flouncing, flashing, flexing;
Sword swishing, stabbing, slashing,
Small fry flinch and die
As the sailfish feeds, swift and furious.


The panda seen on the front of the dust jacket is quiet and contemplative in a setting pleasing to them; among the bamboo in a forest.  The brush strokes, lighting and shading and choice of color create a textured, realistic quality.  To the left, on the back, a canvas is supplied in shades of blue and green.  It appears to be a pattern of beetles. In the center, a loosely-formed circle frames a Monarch butterfly on a pale yellow background.  The book case has the same background with two more loosely-formed elements.  The one on the front features a giraffe.  On the back is a hummingbird.

In hues of blue an interior image of Arctic terns is used for the opening and closing endpapers.  A swarm of Monarch butterflies in flight spans across two pages circling the title text.  You expect to hear the sound of wings in both these pictures.  Beneath the table of contents a scene from an African savanna stretches across two pages as elephants, giraffes and zebras walk and stand.

For each poem a lustrous painting by Petr Horacek spans two pages with the exception of eight single page pictures, the colors used as backgrounds are indicative of the animals' habitats; darkened blues, purples and greens for the bumblebee bat, hot golden yellow for the giraffes, lush shades of green for the leaf insect and chameleon, blowing snow for the polar bears and Emperor penguins and crisp, clean white to showcase particular animals and their poems.  For the five special sections they've been illustrated to look like journal entries; black, gray and two hues of cream.  The heavy, semi-gloss paper is an excellent selection for the pictures and the use this book will receive.

One of my favorite illustrations of many is of the two seahorses facing each other.  One, the male, is releasing teeny babies into the water.  Seaweed waves in the water around them. Soft swirls of greens and blues flow with the current.


A First Book of Animals written by Nicola Davies with illustrations by Petr Horacek reminds us when we are curious we care.  This collaborative team raises awareness in readers of known and unknown animals.  Some of the facts are familiar, other facts will astound readers.

To learn more about Nicola Davies and Petr Horacek and their other work, please visit their websites by following the links attached to their names.  They both maintain blogs; Nicola Davies chats about her life and work and Petr Horacek includes many posts about this title.  There is a lovely article about this title including artwork and comments by Nicola at The Guardian.  Picture Book Party, a blog maintained by Walker Books, highlights Nicola Davies and Petr Horacek in individual posts about this book.  They are absolutely wonderful conversations and Petr's is full of artwork and insights into his process.   For a pronunciation of Petr Horacek's name please go to TeachingBooks.net.  Petr Horacek is interviewed at Where The Board Books Are.  Enjoy the videos.







Please stop by Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to view the other titles selected by bloggers participating in the 2016 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

Animal Observations And The Music of Language

Early this morning fog and clouds shrouded the mountains as snow fell.  Walking from one room to another something caught my attention; a shadow moved behind the shades still down over the window and door opening to the back deck.  The small tree (Xena's tree) was still lit and twinkling.

It was a large doe moving as lightly as the falling flakes.  In search of food she got through the snow and ate what grass she could find.  I know when spring and summer come she will try to enjoy my gardens.  It will be a challenge as we share the same space but today she was beautiful. 

Author illustrator Julie Paschkis combines her notable skills, her acquired love of the Spanish language and perceptions of the animal world in her newest title. Flutter & Hum: Animal Poems, Aleteo y Zumbido: Poemas de Animales (Henry Holt and Company, August 18, 2015) is a harmonious tribute to the beauty of written and spoken words.  It seeks and finds joy.

Snake

Slithering

through the grass

the sinuous snake

is writing

a slippery poem

with his body. ...

La Serpiente

Deslizandose

por la hierba

la serpient sinuosa

esta escribiendo

un poema resbaloso

con su cuerpo.

Fourteen animals and fourteen poems, each in English and in Spanish, feature characteristics, imagine possibilities, describe moments, and pose questions.  It's not usual to think of snakes as authors but it does make a kind of sense when you wonder about the marks they leave behind.  We know the turtle's shell is a portable home but there might be other treasures carried too.

As a heron takes flight a picture alters.  Even on a rainy day a single crow manages to find a bit of sparkle.  A cat sleeping and awake can explore named points apart on our world.  A field is not a field to a cow but a ready restaurant.  Do the dogs wag their tails or does sheer jubilation?

A tiny fly, a flashy parrot and a silent deer feast, demand and peer.  Perhaps they will travel to watch sea giants waltz with waves.  A haunting hoot pierces the dark as moths and fireflies seek and give light.  Under and on water fish weave a lullaby.

From every place on our planet the familiar become extraordinary as Julie Paschkis uses language like a magician makes magic.  Onomatopoeia, repetition, rhyming and free verse in English are mirrored in the elegance of the Spanish translation.  She has the ability to see beyond the obvious and make us gasp in admiration at her perspectives.  Here is another sample portion.

Owl
The moon is a lantern
in the branches.
A shimmer.

A shadow whistles
through the grass.
A whisper.

El Buho
La luna es un farol
en las ramas.
Brilla.

Silba una sambra
por las hierbas.
Un susurro.


Rendered in Winsor & Newton gouache on Arches paper all the illustrations throughout are as stunning as the two on the front and back of the dust jacket.  The earth tones on black are a gorgeous pairing.  On the back, to the left, a male deer, a buck, is looking directly at us from among the trees.  As you will note letters and words in English and Spanish are blended into the illustrations.  This adds a creative, innovative dimension to each image.  The book case is identical to the interior illustration of the heron.  A grass green covers the opening and closing endpapers.  Some of the elements from the dust jacket appear on the title page.

All of the visuals span edge to edge across two pages.  Intricate details invite you to pause at each picture.  Sometimes Julie Paschkis draws us directly into the presence of the animal.  Other times we move back and see them within a larger landscape.  Her color palette varies in relationship to the animal and the time of day.

One of my many favorite illustrations is for the poem Dog.  Among a swirl of yellow flowers and leaves red balls bounce.  On each side a furry brown dog jumps in joy.  The words bump, bounce, abound, red, ruff and ready and tonto, junto, juego, pronto, redondo, rojo, ojo and rebote appear on the leaves and balls.


Flutter & Hum: Animal Poems Aleteo y Zumbido: Poemas de Animales written and illustrated by Julie Paschkis is a cheerful frolic among animals, wild and domestic.  I highly recommend this title for reading aloud in either or both languages.  In an author's note, in English and Spanish, Julie Paschkis tells us these poems were first written in Spanish, then English.  Don't wait until National Poetry Month, use this all year long for writing, a study of languages or animals.

To enjoy learning more about Julie Paschkis and her other books please visit her website by following the link attached to her name.  If you visit the publisher's website you can view eight interior images.  They are absolutely lovely.  Julie Paschkis was a guest at Jama Rattigan's blog, Jama's Alphabet Soup.  You will enjoy the additional illustrations and the interview.


While some might argue the use of this title for the 2015 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge hosted by Alyson Beecher at Kid Lit Frenzy, the use of two languages and animals plus the classification is enough for me.  Please visit the blog to see the other books selected by other bloggers this week.

Solstice Sleep, Solstice Sights

The winter solstice signals the shortest day and the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.  Bare branches wave in the winds.  Only the cawing of crows, the honking of migrating geese or chirping of chickadees breaks the silence.  The snow reveals those beings still awake; footprints betraying their nocturnal travels.

Mother Nature demands this rest, this sleep of renewal.  Winter Bees & Other Poems of the Cold (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, November 4, 2014) written by Joyce Sidman with illustrations by Rick Allen recreates this natural interlude in all it's fascinating elegance.  We listen. We read. We marvel. And we grow in understanding.

Dusk fell
and the cold came creeping,
came prickling into our hearts.

This is the first sentence in the first poem of twelve titled Dream Of The Tundra Swan; transporting us into the residents' realm.  Not only can we claim a clear vision of white wings shaking off gathered flakes of ivory but to know these creatures soar up to 5,000 feet in the air is astounding.

Readers may shiver not from cold but from the thought of thousands of garter snakes gathering to slumber together in the same spot year after year.  Water drops drop from clouds gathering vapor on formed crystals moving without direction, each one different, and each one adding to the growing crowd to layer the ground with snow.  A moose moves with its mother from one spring season to the next weathering winter depths on tall thin legs built for its bulk.

Did you know busy honey makers huddle around their queen, a living buzzing ball?  Beavers hide beneath the ice all winter never seeing the light of day unless it dimly shines through the walls of their mound of sticks and chips.  Ravens and wolves work together in the air and on land, not in complete harmony, to find food.

If voles are fortunate snows will fall deep enough so tunnels can offer protection and passage.  Clever predators are always ready to listen, dig and capture them. Those sentinels, standing silent except for the creaking and cracking on bitter windy days, those trees survive through the ages.

Chickadees cheerfully maneuver from point to point seeking food until the shift in seasons.  Tiny arthropods gather by the thousands as winter weakens and those early floral harbingers send out their skunky scent.  A change is coming.


Poetic master, Joyce Sidman, creates amazingly realistic images with her words. Reading her poetry is an experience for our senses bringing us into the essence of her subject.  Free verse, rhyming patterns, repetition, and two voices speaking surround us with their pulse, Nature's heartbeat in rhythm to our own. Here are two examples from this title.

In the fat white wigwam
made of ripped chips and thrashing twigs
is a heart of fur, curled and cozy,
far beneath the winter sunshine.
(Under Ice; a pantoum)

From dawn to dusk in darkling air
we glean and gulp and pluck and snare,
then find a roost that's snug and tight
to brave the long and frozen night.
(Chickadee's Song)

To the left of each poem are short informative paragraphs offering intriguing details about each subject.  They are the types of facts which get to the heart of each.  They are the types of facts which will garner even more appreciation for each animal, snowflakes, first flowers and trees.


Unfolding the matching dust jacket and book case, readers are greeted by the first of fifteen illustrations spanning across two pages.  With a color palette as icy as the temperature except for the warmth of the featured beings, we are moved to the woodland as surely as if we walked through a door.  Many parts of this world sleep and slow but others are as animated as the foxes moving over the snow.  A steely blue-gray covers both the opening and closing endpapers.  After the turn of the title page highlighting a moose deep in the snow facing readers, a tree branch spans from left to right, final clinging autumn leaves falling, shifting to bare twigs and huge snowflakes drifting downward.  At the book's close the branch is there again.  Snowflakes leave to reveal new buds.

Rick Allen rendered these artistic pieces as stated in this portion taken from the verso.

The individual elements of each picture (the animals, trees, snowflakes, etc.) were cut, inked, and printed from linoleum blocks (nearly two hundred of them), and then hand-colored.  Those prints were then digitally scanned, composed, and layered to create the illustrations for the poems.  

You want to pause at each visual to gaze in wonder at the details, the movement, the background and the texture.  You can hear wings being lifted in flight, the soft fall of snowflakes and crunching and tearing of moose teeth on willow.  Every scene is a study in the marvels of animal and plant adaptation shown in varied perspectives.  In every double-page image but three the fox can be seen.

Several of my favorite illustrations are of the moose and its mother foraging and resting together to sleep. The shades of color in the background are a striking contrast to the warm browns of their fur.  The beavers moving beneath the ice, gathering sticks, swimming and curling up inside their lodge is fantastically portrayed; the shadows of being near the bottom of the stream against the clarity of the room.  Having walked the woods for many years in the early spring to see the first flower, skunk cabbage, I know this close-up view is perfect.  The reflection of the fox drinking in the pool of water is stunning.


Winter Bees & Other Poems of the Cold written by Joyce Sidman with illustrations by Rick Allen is a beautifully conceived and executed work.  The poetry literally sings off the pages, elevated by breathtaking art.  This title would be a welcome addition to a personal or professional collection.  Reading it aloud is mesmerizing.  A single page glossary is included on the final page.

To learn more about Joyce Sidman and Rick Allen please follow the links embedded in their names to visit their personal websites.  Joyce Sidman has several extra items for her titles including videos.  Here is a link to an educator's guide for this book.  Author and blogger at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, Julie Danielson, interviewed Rick Allen recently.  The questions and his answers along with the pictures and artwork are wonderful.

To Be And Learn

Since most of us lack the capacity to morph from one form into another, understanding other people, other animals, tends to be difficult or complicated at the very least.  Yet, we believe knowledge is key to creating empathy.  How can we eliminate fear or distrust without it?

Reading is how we build this bridge; reading closes gaps in our awareness.  We read well-researched nonfiction titles by authors who are experts in a particular subject area or who have consulted with those who are indeed professionals in their field.  We also read books like Eat Like A Bear (Henry Holt and Company) by April Pulley Sayre with illustrations by Caldecott Honor winner, Steve Jenkins. This is how we learn to enlarge our world beyond ourselves.  We become the bear.

Can you eat like a bear?
Awake in April. Find food.
But where?

After being asleep four months, having lost one-third of our weight, it's easy to understand the hunger.  First though, our thirst must be quenched; a pond, a stream or nearby river might do.  With long claws for digging, snow disappears into dirt to reveal shoots of water-loving flora or the remains of another animal who did not survive the winter.

In each of the seven months until we sleep again, our lives revolve around our ability to find something to eat.  We use our nose to smell delectable delicacies, fresh green plants or a pile of ants. If we're up to speed we might run down a stray young elk or later grazing, another bear.  Taking a bath is another opportunity to catch a fresh feast.

We dig and dig and dig some more, discovering appetizers or a midday meal.  We climb heights of broken rocks to capture groups of moths at rest.  Soon it's time to collect the harvest of fruits nature provides.

We dig and dig and dig yet again to uncover what other animals have stored.  We search and seek to find a place to sleep; a place to protect us from the winter winds and snow.  It could be we'll need room for more than ourselves; mid-winter might bring surprises.


When you mesh a childhood embracing the out-of-doors, nurturing a love of nature, with an education in biology and writing, an author such as April Pulley Sayre may appear to the benefit of her many readers.  This June when attending the American Library Association Annual Conference and Exhibition in Chicago, in the midst of crossing the large hallway from the exhibits to the information area, I glanced at the name tag worn by a woman passing by me.  It read April Pulley Sayre.

There among all the hustle and bustle we chatted about her books.  She said she was very pleased with Eat Like A Bear.  Now, having read it multiple times, I can understand why.

Guiding us through the months spent after and before hibernation, after seeking information from those working directly with bears, she gives us the ability to walk beside a single bear.  Her poetic, rhythmic prose full of activity, encourages us to follow.  Use of recurring phrases, sometimes altering a single word, generate an easy flow.  Here is an examples.

Drink like a bear---from a stream.
Leaping trout? None about.
Bushes? Bare. No berries there. ...

Using cut-and torn-paper collage Steve Jenkins' illustrations welcome readers into the bear's life.  For this volume the bears are made with Amate, a handmade Mexican bark paper created from the bark of ficus (fig) trees.  As soon as readers see the front and back jacket and cover, they'll want to touch them. (The ants on the front cover shimmer like the tiny bodies do in the wild.)

Definitely a master of this medium, Jenkins' use of paper is astonishing in his ability to convey the intricate life-like details of each element in the pictures.  His perspectives, a close-up of the bear's head, side view, another two pages zooming in on a dandelion plant with the bear smaller in the background, two bears meeting nose-to-nose, a partial side view of their heads or the bear, neck stretched to taste huckleberries, looking from the bottom upward, will have readers believing they are participants in these monthly adventures.  My favorite illustration is of the bear seated in the meadow with the dandelions.


Author April Pulley Sayre and illustrator Steve Jenkins, have collaborated, as they did in Vulture View, to conceive an intriguing portrayal of one of nature's most commanding members in Eat Like A Bear.  This title is the whole package, a gift in words and pictures, informing and creating a link to another part of the chain we call life.  Thank you April Pulley Sayre and Steve Jenkins for this book.

To view more pages from the book follow this link to the publisher's website.  To learn more about the author and illustrator follow the links embedded in their names within this post.

You Say You Want A Pet?

You have to wonder if we are somehow genetically wired to desire the companionship of creatures, large or small, in our homes as part of our daily lives.  From an early age gals and guys most certainly not only want but feel they need a pet.  Maybe it's as simple as desiring to nurture being a part of our inherent nature.

From experience I know most parents have a long, detailed list of reasons for not getting any kind of a pet.  But even mine would have looked with admiration and in stunned silence at the parents of this pigtailed prodigy.  You'll feel a grin begin to grow from as early as the jacket flaps when reading The Pet Project: Cute and Cuddly Vicious Verses (Atheneum Books for Young Readers) by Lisa Wheeler with illustrations by Zachariah OHora.

I asked my parents for a pet.

My parents answered, "Not quite yet."

The parents of this girl have responded with a requirement of  research; what kind of pet she wants, all the associated costs and to personally observe each possibility.  As proof of these endeavors, they've requested she write everything down.  Her first stop is the farm.

A rather cranky cow, a  haranguing hen, a persnickety pony, a dove who delights in dropping doo-doo and stinky sheep have our gal making a hasty retreat to another animal residence, the zoo.  Her findings there are equally frustrating; a monkey with disgusting habits, a tiger who tastes humans (gulp), a penguin with no mind or mannerisms of his own,  a hippo who is much too large and a polar bear with dietary requirements a tad on the gross side.  Reflecting on her possibilities, she decides to head closer to home.

Into the woods the smells of a skunk cement her original thoughts on the species, the bustling of squirrels have her dreaming of their handiness as landscapers, and the garden marauding of bunnies let her know there's another place she needs to go.  Now in her home she wonders about a gobbling goldfish, ambitious ants, a too small dog and a turncoat cat.  No...no...no...and no have her exploring once more.  Her frustration is growing as her hope of finding the perfect pet gets smaller.

A stop at the pet store is disheartening; from the slow-moving turtle to the multiplying gerbils to the unpredictable guinea pig to the parrot with no social skills to the why-are-there-so-many mice and the hungry snake, our traveling investigator is left in a quandary.  With the precision of a career scientist, with all possibilities exhausted, there is only once conclusion that can be drawn.  These twenty-seven plus poetic thoughts written with care will lead readers to a surprising last line. ( I can hear the exclamations now--"She wants a what!")

Our elementary school was fortunate enough several years ago through our generous PTO to have Lisa Wheeler spend a day in our building.  The wit and wisdom, rhythm and rhyme, and playful use of language found in her books is part and parcel of her bubbling personality.  In this title the poetry simply rolls off your tongue with pacing creating a catchy beat.  With the honest, no-holds-barred notes of the girl, readers will find it hard to not burst out laughing.  

Rendered in acrylic paints the illustrations in this title roar out at readers beginning with the double-page matching jacket and cover.  Zachariah OHora's use of heavy black lines to accentuate the elements in his visuals draw readers' eyes exactly where they need to go.  The jacket flaps cleverly align with the opening and closing endpapers; a row of thirteen different animals all cheerfully facing us in the beginning but showing us the backside of each in the end.  One animal does seem to be missing though...and the snake slithering off the page has a huge lump in its middle.  A limited color palette, shades of green, red, gold, orange and tan heighten focus.

The close-up of the top of the girl's head, pigtails sticking out, spread out across both the title pages is the first hint of numerous touches of humor.  It's easy to see with pictures featuring varying but distinctive perspectives exactly how the girl feels about her latest inquiries.  OHora's interpretation, his extension of the text, is downright clever.  While I like the pony appearing in a beauty salon chair under the dryer, getting a pedicure, my favorite is the illustration accompanying the bunnies rhyme.  We get to see the furry fiends in action underground. 

The Pet Project: Cute and Cuddly Vicious Verses by Lisa Wheeler with illustrations by Zachariah OHora is a riotous, romp, an exploration brimming with humor, not to be missed.  The poems beginning on the jacket flap, continuing with an introductory warning and filling the remaining pages are fun...fun...fun.  This title is sure to be a favorite with readers and listeners alike.

For more information about the author and illustrator follow the links embedded in their names to their websites.  Follow this link to Zachariah OHora's blog for a look at the process involved in the cover development.  Here is a link to an interview of Zachariah OHora at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.

The Cats Are Out Of The Bag

For whatever reason, cats like me.  It would make perfect sense to me that I would give off some type of distinctive smell that says, "I am a totally, over-the-top, lover of dogs so don't bother", but they continue to come to me if we are remotely near one another. What I do know about cats, having never lived with one, has come from reading.

I have the utmost respect for the majesty and prowess of all the big cats; mourning their diminishing numbers on our planet as addressed in author Martin Jenkins' and illustrator Vicky White's Can We Save The Tiger?  When their much smaller domestic relatives become comedic characters portrayed in Splish, Splash, Splat! by Rob Scotton, Fuddles by Fran Vischer, Skippyjon Jones: Class Action by Judy Schachner or Dog In Charge by K. L. Going with illustrations by Dan Santat, I'm chuckling on the inside if not bursting into laughter.  When I read and reread Cat Talk (Katherine Tegen Books) by Patricia MacLachlan and Emily MacLachlan Charest with illustrations by Barry Moser, I came to appreciate their true nature and individuality.


Tough Tom
You opened the window 
And I walked in.
I didn't want to
But it was cold outside
And dark.
And I was hungry.

You opened the window
And I walked in
With a torn ear
And a scratch on my nose.
It was warm
And you had food
And a blanket. ...

Tough Tom is the first of thirteen poems, introducing readers to unique felines named in each poem's title.  Young and old, tall and small, white, black, and all the cat colors in-between, we get to meet them. Quirky personalities, bold, shy, playful, arrogant and slightly sly emanate from the printed page with clever clarity.

A barn cat named Lily thinks her best friend might be a mouse.  The sound of running water in the bathtub has Alice nearly jumping in to join the bubbly fun.  Henry can't get enough of his girl or her wedding gown; it makes the nicest spot for sleeping.


Surely authors Patricia MacLachlan and Emily MacLachlan Charest must have some kind of magical communication connection to the family of cats to have conveyed them so well.  Or perhaps as authors they both have a very keen sense of observation and the ability to transfer those into the pleasing poetic free verse found in this title.  Their selection of words, how they are joined to complete a thought and their placement on each line depicts the essence of cat; an unmistakable rhythm in their movements and mannerisms.  Choosing to use the voice of each cat in the individual selections makes the reader feel like they are in a private conversation getting the inside scoop.  Here is an example at the end of the poem titled Peony.

... You can hardly see my nose
Pink.
They brush me to keep out tangles and ticks.
What no one knows
Is that under my big coat
I am
Little.


Opening the front and back jacket and matching cover, readers will be entranced with the nearly photographic quality of Barry Moser's paintings; you can almost feel the softness of the fur, hear the gentle purring.  On the back is a single cat looking over his shoulder beneath the poem Simon printed in its entirety.  The blue in the title, Cat Talk, is replicated in the opening and closing endpapers. On the first title page under the title is the back of a cat seated in repose.  With a page turn on the left is the front of the same cat, Tough Tom, opposite a more expansive title page.

The illustrations for Cat Talk were executed in transparent watercolor on paper hand made at the Hayle Mill in Kent, England, for the Royal Watercolour Society.  For six of the poems Moser has extended the picture across the gutter into a third of the opposite page with a clean edge creating a column for the text.  For the other seven his visuals span the two pages leaving liberal amounts of white space to showcase the poetry.  Whether it's a cat creeping through an open kitchen window, contentedly smiling with a mouse on its head, bed sheets with three sets of feet (one feline) protruding from the end or a sleepy cat lying next to a computer mouse on a desk, each are shown in beautiful detail.  I think my favorite is of Henry, a charcoal cat, eyes closed on his back nestled in the folds of the white dress.


The first person (cat) poetic free verse written by Patricia MacLachlan and Emily MacLachlan Charest illustrated with the warm, softly rendered paintings of Barry Moser are a purr-fect pairing in Cat Talk. You don't have to be a friend of felines to appreciate this beautiful volume.  It would be outstanding to use during National Poetry Month along with Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech or with Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told In Haiku by Lee Wardlaw with illustrations by Eugene Yelchin.


Please follow this link to the publisher web site to get a glimpse inside the book.  The links embedded in the author and illustrator names provide more information about them and their considerable work.

Impressive Inhabitants

In thinking of the most unlikely places for any specie to live, only to discover something actually lives there, is cause for filing these notable nuggets of information in the amazing folder.  It makes you pause to ponder the instinct for survival, the ability to adapt in extreme conditions.  Then the questions start to come; the how, the why, the when.

With National Poetry Month fast approaching an enjoyable introduction to such unusual creatures with  unique features, would be through the reading of poems.  A Strange Place To Call Home:  The World's Most Dangerous Habitats & The Animals That Call Them Home (Chronicle Books, August 22, 2012) written by Marilyn Singer with illustrations by Ed Young is a collection of fourteen poems as singular as the animals they describe.  These poems give us eyes into worlds and animals we might otherwise never encounter.

Hear "penguins," think cold,
think riding on floes.
Who pictures them swimming
where it seldomly snows,
on the dry, dry coasts
of Chile or Peru,
with no ice to slide on,
no glaciers to view?

We travel to the western edge of South America, to the island of Japan, to assorted points within the United States, inside glaciers in the northern hemisphere, to underground caves in Texas and Mexico, to salt flats, deep under the sea, mountaintops, the intertidal zone, deserts, the mangroves, and pools of oil to discover the living quarters of these astonishing inhabitants. We are introduced to penguins who bury their eggs to avoid the heat, monkeys who stay warm by bathing in hot springs, toads who only come above ground when it rains, worms who live in tubes deep under the sea, blind fish and foxes who now prefer life in the city. Each poem focuses on the uncommon characteristics of animal and area dispelling what readers may have thought they knew about either.

Marilyn Singer has chosen to use a variety of poetic forms throughout, selecting a style which best serves to highlight each animal and its habitat.  Free verse, informal rhyme, triolet, haiku, sonnet, cinquain, villanelle and terza rima are matched to the blind cave fish, limpets, mudskippers, spadefoot toads, mountain goats, petroleum flies, flamingos and camels respectively.  Singer not only informs but guides readers to seek answers.


The mysterious, deep sea dark jacket and matching cover serve to draw readers to the selections as well as highlight an introductory poem on the back.  Bright sky blue opening and closing endpapers marbleized in white to give the appearance of splashing water, are in sharp contrast as are the environments visited in the poems.  Caldecott Medal winner Ed Young beautifully renders the title's illustrations in collage.

Each two-page spread is dedicated to a single animal with a color palette reflecting their home and their physical characteristics.  Young alternates perspective to give readers a more intimate relationship with each; much like a photographer does peering through the camera lens.  His use of different materials gives an authentic quality of texture to each visual; an appeal to the senses.  Of the fourteen my two favorites are those for the flamingos and the limpets; shades of coral, red and pink, long legs, graceful necks feeding in the salty land and the waves crashing among the rocks, lined spirals clinging like clustered hats.


A Strange Place To Call Home:  The World's Most Dangerous Habitats & The Animals That Call Them Home is a collection of poems written by Marilyn Singer with collage illustrations by Ed Young that is meant to be shared.  Surely they are to be read for enjoyment but each one invites further investigation.  I found myself frequently looking for more information after the reading of several.  There are endnotes for the animals at the back as well as a single page explaining poetic forms.

A Strange Place to Call Home by

In this video from Reading Rockets Marilyn Singer talks about poetry in general and writing poetry with students.  She includes some great ideas.

They Are Our World

Without a doubt the most popular and most circulated sections of the library are those focused on animals whether they are wild or domesticated, large or small, or make their homes on land, water or air.  Year after year for decades I have never seen this fascination fade; a curiosity needing to be fed.  I would like to think this kinship does not diminish as people grow up; somewhere deep inside it is waiting to be wakened to the strength it held in days past.

Sometimes all it takes is a pause, a moment of awareness seeing with an acuteness, listening for a new sound or a strange smell carried by the wind.  Sometimes when you least expect it you'll look, see a flash of rust knowing a fox has traveled past or catch the fluttering of wings knowing a hummingbird is near a group of flowers.  Sometimes a book with photographs so stunning in color and detail, poems carefully tucked within the pages, will lift the kinship to new heights.  National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry with favorites from Robert Frost, Jack Prelutsky, Emily Dickinson, and more, 200 poems with photographs that SQUEAK, SOAR, and ROAR! edited by J. Patrick Lewis, U. S. Children's Poet Laureate, is such a book.


Have you ever thought about a day in the life of a giraffe, a porcupine, a whale, or a snail?  At this very moment, each one of them (if they are not asleep) is bustling about, fast or slow, as busy in his day, in her way, as you are in yours.

J. Patrick Lewis introduces readers to this brilliant body of work he selected from a vast array of poetic literature from the past to present.  The chosen names are as mind-boggling as the selections; Carl Sandburg, Valerie Worth, Jane Yolen, Janet S. Wong, Michael J. Rosen, Kristine O'Connell George, William Cowper, Avis Harley, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Arnold Adoff, William Jay Smith, Rudyard Kipling, Douglas Florian, Lilian Moore, Myra Cohn Livingston, Bobbi Katz, and Mary Ann Hoberman to list only a hint of the many notables.  Some of the poems are familiar examples of the poet's work, others are a delightful surprise.

The 160 plus pages of poetic pleasure are divided into headings: Welcome to the World, The Big Ones, The Little Ones, The Winged Ones, The Water Ones, The Strange Ones, The Noisy Ones, The Quiet Ones and Final Thoughts.  Readers are treated to a range of types; free verse, rhyming couplets, shape poems, haiku, or limericks.  One poem flows into another seamlessly as alliteration, simile and metaphor weave words creating a meter, a movement from page to page.

Representation of every form of living creature from the animal kingdom takes readers to the four corners of the world; for brief moments as words are read you enter their space, knowing what they know.  Whether it's Buffalo Dusk, Cow, Grandpa Bear's Lullaby, Mountain Gorilla, Inchworm, Hamster Hide-and Seek, Dust of Snow, The Eagle, Anemone, The Walrus, The Anteater, How to Paint a Zebra, Summertime, The Breed You Need, or from The Law of the Jungle each voice is heard.  It's hard not to imagine the poem was specifically written for the individual photographs; they're so carefully matched.

Microscopic detail, panoramic spreads, a partial page, single page or two, all are pieced together so well it's like watching a movie with the page turn controlling the speed.  Zooming in to see a baby orangutan kissing a parent, catching an elephant mid spiraling spray, a chipmunk cheek packed with a peanut, a snail crawling up a blade of grass, raindrops hanging like diamonds, or zooming out to see an amazing group of hundreds of flamingos gathered to shape the form of a single flamingo, will have readers pausing not only at the wonder to be found in our world but in the skill of those taking these photographs.  Color, composition, perspective and lighting are impeccable.


The National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry with favorites from Robert Frost, Jack Prelutsky, Emily Dickinson, and more, 200 poems with photographs that SQUEAK, SOAR, and ROAR! edited by J. Patrick Lewis, U. S. Children's Poet Laureate is an astounding blend of poetry and pictures.  You might have to pace yourself to keep from reading it at one sitting.  Even completed you will want to go back for rereads of your favorite poems or sections.  It will invite further exploration of the animal world and other poems penned by specific authors.

J. Patrick Lewis includes two special pages at the back for those interested in writing their own poems along with a bibliography on the following two pages of resources for wordplay.  A title, poet, first line and subject index are available.  J. Patrick Lewis concludes this volume with a poem of his own titled Make the Earth Your Companion.  A video of his reading this poem with pictures taken from this title can be viewed by following this link.  It's beautiful.