Aw heck! Recommend this book to everyone. Recommend this book to teachers for use in the science curriculum. Recommend this book to budding naturalists. They also provide us with some close-up views of the little inhabitants that often go unnoticed therein.
Krommes’ scratchboard illustrations are striking in their depiction of the beauty of the meadow. This is a collection of finely honed writing.
In BUTTERFLY EYES, Joyce Sidman displays her deft touch in using a particular style or form of poem to suit its subject. On the following two-page spread, Sidman gives us the answer to the riddle and a paragraph of prose in which she provides further information about the spittlebug. And if the reader is clueless, that’s fine. The reader is expected to take clues from the text of Sidman’s poem and from the illustration by Beth Krommes…and maybe-just maybe-deduce that Bubble Song is the song of a spittlebug. Here is an excerpt from one of my favorite poems in the book. We Are Waiting is a pantoum, a poetic form composed of quatrains in which the second and fourth lines of one quatrain are repeated as the first and third lines of the following quatrain. One riddle is a concrete poem that takes shape as a toad. Topics of the poems include grasshoppers, snakes, hawks, butterflies, and dew. Its poems and prose open OUR eyes to the world of the meadow. Sidman’s most recent collection, BUTTERFLY EYES AND OTHER SECRETS OF THE MEADOW, is a masterful follow-up to SONG OF THE WATER BOATMAN. SONG OF THE WATER BOATMAN: Honors and Awards Take a look at the honors and awards conferred on it: Fortunately, the book did receive many other accolades. I thought if any book of poetry deserved a nod from a Newbery committee-this was the one. SONG OF THE WATER BOATMAN is an outstanding book. (Prange won a Caldecott Honor for SONG OF THE WATER BOATMAN.) This is a great book to use across the curriculum in connecting science and poetry. But Sidman’s fine poetry and prose, which inform readers about the flora and fauna that inhabit a pond, are topnotch and every bit a match for Prange’s art. There’s no doubt that the beautiful woodblock and watercolor illustrations by Beckie Prange add to the appeal of this book. Look at how Sidman uses repetition to its best advantage in the following two stanzas of her poem about spring peepers: This is not just a poetry book-this is as beautiful a science book as you will ever find.
This collection includes poems about spring peepers, wood ducks, green darners, duckweed, the water boatman-and more. It deservedly received a multitude of accolades, including the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award. It is also the work of an individual who is a careful observer of nature, a person who is a scientist of the heart. Sidman’s SONG OF THE WATER BOATMAN & OTHER POND POEMS was one of the most notable children’s books published in 2005. Joyce Sidman is fast establishing an excellent name for herself as a children’s poet.
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