In Stillness A Surprise

If and when one is seen, it is like witnessing a miracle.  Whether by design or suddenness, a sighting of these insects is to be remembered.  You will recall the place and the time of year.  This reader can count on one hand the number of times one has been seen.  It has been nearly a decade since the last one was discovered.

As skilled hunters, they sit unmoving and silent.  They become a part of their surroundings.  Their shape and size gives them the appearance of being misplaced in time.  Wait--and See (Candlewick Press, May 10, 2022) written by Helen Frost with photography by Rick Lieder is the sixth collaboration between these two talented creators.  This poetic and pictorial celebration of the praying mantis is also a challenge to readers to adopt a slower pace of living, encouraging us to look with a closer eye at whatever environment in which we find ourselves.

If a quick small

movement

takes you by

surprise,

You will want to become a statue except for your eyes.  What was that quick movement?  Is there something you nearly missed?  If you are among greenery, you might be near a praying mantis.  

If you are as still as it is, soon you will see this predator capture a meal.  Make sure you remember the shape and size of this praying mantis.  It will help you to spot one in the future.

If you visit this space again, you might notice another event unfolding.  From a brown sac, hundreds of tiny mantises fall.  Will you be able to view their growth?  Be patient.  Be quiet and unmoving.

Rhyming couplets by Helen Frost reveal a world hidden to those who have not yet learned to pause and peer.  In her words, we are asked and reminded of the wondrous riches revealed when we look closer, wait, and be still.  Her text speaks to the characteristics of the praying mantis and the hatching of new praying mantises.  Here is a passage.

Is that a praying mantis,

brown and green,

standing still,

trying not to be seen?

In a word, the photographs we first see on the open dust jacket (and throughout the book) by Rick Lieder are stunning.  They not only showcase his skill but exemplify his ability to wait and see.  The details displayed in his focus and perception take us directly into the world of the praying mantis.

To the left of the spine, on the back, diffused lighting gives us an array of green and gold for a background.  On the left side, our eyes are drawn to a bent stem (or blade of grass).  On the right side, a praying mantis rests on that stem or blade.

The book case is covered in a pale turquoise.  It is almost looks like mint green.  It is bare except for the center of the front.  Here is an embossed praying mantis in the same color.  (Children love to run their fingers over raised details on jackets and book cases.  So do I.)

Two different photographs are spread across the opening and closing endpapers.  On the first, it appears to be daylight.  A praying mantis is positioned underneath a narrow leaf.  It is much darker in the second visual.  The praying mantis is posed on top of a leaf with other leaves above and below it on a stem.

The two-page illustration for the title page is breathtaking.  The close-up of blossom stems and a blossom supply a setting fit for a praying mantis to stop.  Each page turn provides readers with a page-and-one-half, two-page or single-page picture.  Text is embedded in the photographs or within a generated column of solid color.  You will find yourself gasping at the close-up points of view.

One of my many favorite illustrations is a double-page photograph.  Beginning at the center bottom on the left side, crossing the gutter, and extending to the right edge is an evergreen branch.  Behind it is faded greens, golds and a touch of pale peach or pink,  Atop this branch is a praying mantis.  Its head is turned to look directly at readers.  The details are astounding.

The team of author Helen Frost and photographer Rick Lieder have delivered a marvelous look at nature for readers in Wait---and See.  At the close of the book, opposite the final photograph of tiny praying mantises on buttercups, is a page of notes about the praying mantises in this book and their characteristics and life habits.  This will make a splendid addition to your personal and professional collections.

To learn more about Helen Frost and Rick Lieder and their other work, please visit their websites by following the link attached to their names.  Helen Frost has accounts on Facebook and Instagram.  Rick Lieder has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  At Penguin Random House, you can view interior images.

New Spring, New Life

You usually hear them before you see them. As one of the oldest living bird species, the call seems nearly out of place and time.  As you lift your head and scan the skies, you seek a unique silhouette.  There is apt to be a wing span of six to seven feet, graceful long legs trail behind the body.

If you are fortunate, they can be seen forging in fields or gliding across a watery expanse.  Hello, I'm Here (Candlewick Press, March 20, 2019) written by Helen Frost with photography by Rick Lieder is the most recent collaboration by these outstanding artists.  It's a poetic and visual portrait of a sandhill crane's entry into the world.

It's getting crowded 
inside this egg.

The voice of an unborn sandhill crane chick speaks directly with fervent truth.  It's hard to move any body parts when you've grown too large for your current residence.  There are so many questions in this young mind needing answers, so a tiny beak starts to peck.

Out of the shell, the newborn cries for company.  Where are its parents?  Next to a parent the tiny bundle of fluff wonders if its legs will allow it to stand.  Are they sturdy?  Walking around taking tentative steps, the bird notices another youngster, a sibling.

The newborn follows the older baby, the duo wanders around the shore, exploring the area and the use of their legs and wings.  Mama advises them of dangers.  She shows the baby the best things to eat.  A flock of cranes glide by overhead and wishes of flight fill a young heart.  All this activity means it's time for a nap.


With insight perfected from her keen and practiced observation skills Helen Frost brings us along to appreciate the first days in the life of a sandhill crane.  Told through the voice of the chick, eleven four-line verses present an intimate impression.  The final word in the second and fourth lines rhyme with a gentle and joyful cadence.  Here are four lines.

We flap our wings.
We try to dance.
Let's go swimming---
here's our chance.


The photography of Rick Lieder on the front and back of the dust jacket is the initial wondrous glimpse of what the interior pictures will depict.  You have to wonder how many hours were spent and how many photographs were taken to get the perfect presentation of the chick with the open beak, nestled in the mother's feathers.  To the left, on the back, a tiny chick is cautiously walking in grass.  Its head is turned as something has captured its attention.

On the book case, in spring green, the sandhill crane chicks, walking side-by-side are embossed and raised on the front. On the opening endpapers in a field the baby is walking from the left to the parent on the right.  Of the parent we see legs and a head and neck bent and ready to receive the child.  In shades of purple and blue, dusk is falling, and clouds move across a moonrise on the closing endpapers.  Framed between darkened evergreens, four cranes fly to the right.

Most of the eloquent images span two pages.  The single-page pictures flow together seamlessly as if they were taken mere seconds apart.  Most of the photographs are close-ups which give readers a more personal experience.  The color, definition of details and lighting are breathtakingly exquisite.  The layout and design with respect to the picture sizes and placement of the text is superb.

One of my many, many favorite photographs spans two pages.  Most of the background is a blurred dark green due to focus and perspective.  Walking along a line of a lighter color on the bottom are the two chicks and a parent.  We are very close to the chicks.  On each one of them a leg is raised, poised for the next step.  To their right are the tall legs of an adult, also in mid-step.


There is no better way to welcome this wonderful season of spring than with new life after the long, cold and snowy winter.  Hello, I'm Here! written by Helen Frost with photographs by Rick Lieder is certain to be a favorite story time book whether read one-on-one or to a group.  I know there will be requests for it to be read again.  It will promote further investigations into the study of young animal babies, birds and sandhill cranes.  At the close of the book is a page devoted to more information about these distinctive birds.  I highly recommend this title for your personal and professional collections.

To discover more about Helen Frost and Rick Lieder and their other work, please explore their websites by following the links attached to their names.  At the publisher's website you can view an interior image.  It is an incredible captured moment.  Please enjoy the book trailer.  I have included further websites and a video to be used along with this book.  You can get more information at All About Birds, Songbird Protection Coalition (This article addresses the discussion surrounding making them a game bird in the state of Michigan.), Michigan Audubon and International Crane Foundation.

A Parade Of Poetry

It's hard to believe the 20th anniversary celebration of National Poetry Month has nearly come to a close.  It's been twenty-nine days of showcasing poetry, reading and writing poems, creating spine poetry thanks to promoter teacher librarian Travis Jonker, blogger at 100 Scope Notes, and the true-blue fun of Poem in Your Pocket Day.  Although any day of the year is a great day for poetry, this month's focus wins more readers and writers to this literary form.

It's a time to direct attention to beloved favorite poems, classic collections and spotlight wonderful new titles. On March 8, 2016 three books were released.  The first of these, Wet Cement: A Mix Of Concrete Poems (Roaring Brook Press) is written by Bob Raczka.

In the introduction Raczka explains concrete poetry to readers with an emphasis on using words to literally paint a picture on a page.  The words in a concrete poem form the item being described in the poem.  In this collection he takes it further by using the letters in the poem's title to depict that word.

Twenty-one poems, shown in black on white and white on black, help us to soar if only for twelve seconds, play games, search the night skies and peer into our closets. We pause at the baseball diamond, run after tiny creatures of the night and marvel at the miracle of our planet in the cosmos.  We enjoy the best of two seasons, gasp at a summer storm's display and let a possession sail the air waves.

Bob Raczka asks us to vary our pattern of reading.  We find ourselves not only reading left to right but in a circle, bottom to top, connecting words as if in a puzzle, around curves, holding the pages in front of a mirror, right to left and sideways and following a maze.  The poems' titles, as well as the poem itself, are placed to coordinate a complete image.  Here is a sample poem with a title.

For younger readers and those young at heart Guess Who, Haiku (Abrams Appleseed) with words by Deanna Caswell and pictures by Bob Shea is a lively look at the ancient Japanese poetic technique. Using the five syllables, seven syllables and five syllables format for three lines of poetry, readers are invited to guess the animal being described.  Ten poems playfully portray creatures of all sizes.

Here's a haiku just for you!

new day on the farm
muffled mooing announces
a fresh pail of milk

Can you guess who from this haiku?

With a page turn we discover the answer in two words.  For the next poem the previous animal sends out the request for us to use our thinking skills.  This pattern continues until the final poem.

With this repetitive sequence Deanna Caswell supplies a pleasing, beckoning rhythm.  In an author's note at the back she defines a portion of the word haiku as an explanation for her particular poems.  She cheerfully requests readers to try reading the lines of the poems with one of the lines removed, asking us how or if this will change the results.


Using a palette of pastel colors with bright accents, Bob Shea's images charmingly enhance this gathering of haiku fun. Portions of some of the animals appear on the front book case.  On the opening and closing endpapers small circular hues feature black drawings of nine of the animals in a repeating design.

The text for each haiku poem is displayed in a different colored font on white with a pictorial clue pictured below.  With a page turn Shea has placed the animal on a vivid canvas usually including something from the clues in this illustration.  You can't help but smile at these pictures.



In their third collaboration (Step Gently Out and Sweep Up the Sun) poet Helen Frost and photographer, painter and illustrator Rick Lieder explore another marvelous aspect of our natural world. Among a Thousand Fireflies (Candlewick Press) takes us to an evening when two beetles seek to find each other.  The combination of these two artists' talents creates a breathtaking illuminating view.

In a summer meadow
near the river,
as night's first stars
blink on,
a firefly
steps
into a flower.

She waits and watches surrounded by more lights blinking on and off than would be possible to count.  She is searching for one particular cadence, a secret code.  It hardly seems possible she will find it.  But she does.

She answers with her own series of glowing beats, matching what she has seen.  She seeks acknowledgment.  He approaches.

Helen Frost with word choices and punctuation replicates the flashing of fireflies with her phrases.  If you read the text aloud, it's almost as if you are seated outside on a balmy summer's night, watching these tiny creatures work their mating magic.  You hardly dare breathe for the beauty her words carry.


When you open the dust jacket two photographs, on the back across the spine to the front, blend to become a single moment.  So exquisite is the detail and lighting you wonder how many pictures were taken to capture these exact visuals. A single shade of blue covers the book case.  On the front a pair of fireflies is embossed in the center.  On the opening and closing endpapers two more photographs reveal the intricacies of these delicate beings.

You will find yourself gasping at the splendor seen on every new page.  Rick Lieder varies his perspectives bringing us close to the fireflies and then stepping back to show us how they move and light the night.  The style of softening the background leaving only certain portions highly focused is a highly sensory experience for readers.



These three titles, representative of three distinctive types of poetry, Wet Cement: A Mix Of Concrete Poems written by Bob Raczka, Guess Who, Haiku written by Deanna Caswell with illustrations by Bob Shea and Among a Thousand Fireflies written by Helen Frost with photographs by Rick Lieder have one thing in common.  They are all brilliant.  I highly recommend adding them to your personal and professional collections.  Pause on every page.  Read them aloud.  Repeatedly.

To learn more about Bob Raczka, Bob Shea, Helen Frost and Rick Lieder please follow the links attached to their names to access their websites.  At the Candlewick Press website you can view an interior image from Among a Thousand Fireflies.  Enjoy the book trailer.

In The Year 1812

Until we all have the ability to move back and forth in space and time, we rely on primary sources of fact to give us insights into the events which comprise history.  From these records authors and illustrators provide readers with nonfiction and fiction enlarging our understanding based upon their interpretations.  If not for these books our perceptions of the past would be greatly diminished.  

During the course of my reading life, historical fiction has continually provided the impetus for me to dig deeper into the truths presented in those titles.  In December of 2013 a book, a novel in verse, appeared on the nominations list for the 2013 Nerdy Award Finalists.  Recently I completed my reading of this book, Salt:  A Story of Friendship in a Time of War (Frances Foster Books, Farrar Straus Giroux) written by Helen Frost.  Presented through the voices of two twelve-year-old boys, we are given a possible, personal perspective of two life-changing months in the autumn of 1812.

A shallow sea

moves over the earth,

salty, sun-warmed.

Water rises

as mist,

fog, clouds,

leaving a thin coat

of salt on the ground.

Anikwa lives with Old Raccoon, his father's younger brother who he calls Father, Mink, his wife, Wiinicia, Old Raccoon's mother who Anikwa calls Grandma, fourteen-year-old Rain Bird and six-year-old Toontwa, children of Old Raccoon and Mink.  They make their home in the community of Kekionga at the juncture of three rivers.   James Gray lives with his parents and younger sister, Molly, within the stockade surrounding the fort in a house next to the trading post run by his father.

There is a bond, generations' old, between the two families; James' great-grandfather traded with the Miami (Myaamia).  For the first six one-page chapters we become acquainted with the relationship between Anikwa and James, the sharing of adventures in the surrounding woods and fields, food and fun between the two young men.  They each know a few words of the other's language.  It is in the seventh chapter speaking in James' voice, the conflict, the tragedy to come, is introduced. 

Isaac, an eleven-year-old boy, the son of soldier lives at the fort.  Unfortunately, he joins James one morning as he walks to catch some fish at the river.  Isaac's conversation is constant describing the conflict predicted to come and his distrust of the Native Americans.  An incident at the river highlights the disparity in beliefs of people like Isaac and James and Anikwa.  

In another series of chapters we are given a picture of the daily lives of both families.  We realize the ethical standards which guide the actions of both groups.  Woven among the conversations and thoughts of Anikwa and James are several additional incidents portraying the increasing tensions in the area.

Adult discussions are overheard and decisions are made, some confusing to the boys.  Due to restrictions placed on their lives by the upcoming arrival of the American and British soldiers, the confidence and trust grown over their shared lifetimes is threatened.  Literal and figurative fires are set destroying decades of growth.  Will those things which brought them together before be strong enough to do so again?

During the moments it took me to read the opening quote by Mihsihkinaahkwa, Miami Chief (Little Turtle) to William H. Harrison, Governor of the Indiana Territory, look over the Miami Homeland map, study the two page introduction by Helen Frost and the explanation of character names, I knew I was going to be taken back in time by an author who had done extensive research in support of her passion for this project.  This was further confirmed on my completion of the story by the author notes, glossary of Miami (Myaamia) words and acknowledgments. The opening poem I included above is the first of ten depicting the area containing the salt deposits necessary to the lives of many.  Frost uses them to delineate certain aspects of her story.

Within the confines of her poetic prose Helen Frost breathes beautiful life into the two boys' voices. Anikwa's pages are in the shape of traditional Miami ribbon work.  James's pages began in the shape of stripes on the American flag.  Frost says:

As I discovered the two voices, the pulse-like shape of Anikwa's poems wove through the horizontal lines of James's poems, and the two voices created something new that held the story as it opened out.

 Readers cannot help but be drawn into the circumstances surrounding the lives of both.  I remarked to a colleague as I was nearing the end of the story, how I was afraid to finish.  I could feel the tension increasing as I was filled with an overwhelming sadness.  Here are a couple passages of many I marked as exemplary. 

Two fish arc out of the water near

the eddy, showing us exactly where they are.

Then, over by that sycamore that fell last year, a big

bullfrog starts up talking like a drum.  I answer, and he

answers back.  And then we hear something else---

James's quiet voice, Isaac's scratchy loud one.

It sounds like they're arguing.  Everything

except the river and the frog stops

talking.  The bluebirds fly

away, the ducks dive

underwater.

Anikwa plays a tune on a willow whistle.  Could I make one?  I point to the whistle

and take out my knife.  We go find a willow tree, and Anikwa shows me how

to cut a stick at an angle, make a notch through the bark, and tap the stick all over

so the bark comes loose and slips right off.  After I slice off a piece of wood

to make a mouthpiece, he helps me cut another notch and slide the bark back on.

I put the whistle to my mouth and blow---it works!  The sound it makes is lower

than Anikwa's.  He plays fast, and I play slow; soft, loud, then soft again.

We sound so good, two yellow birds stop to listen and sing along with us.

I believe Salt:  A Story of Friendship in a Time of War written by Helen Frost is a significant work of historical fiction for the audience in which it is intended.  It is not only valuable for the story it tells but for the discussions I know it will generate.  What each individual takes away from the reading of this book depends on what they bring to it originally.  Personally, I am deeply moved by the accounting created by the impressive research and lovely writing of Helen Frost.

For more information about the title with multiple resources please follow the link embedded in Helen Frost's name to her website. Anita Silvey author of the print and online Anita Silvey's Children's Book-A-Day Almanac wrote a review linked here.  For a review of the book from a Native American perspective along with the continuing conversation in the comments, please follow this link to Debbie Reese's blog, American Indians In Children's Literature.  Please follow this link to the publisher's website to read further excerpts from the book.