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Howdy Campers!
Yippee!--it's Poetry Friday! (the link's at the end of this post ~)
Confession regarding the title of this post: I lied. Although there were many wonderful poetry books this year, I'm going to talk about just one.
You may already have read it...or read about it on Laura Purdie Salas' TeachingAuthors post in May.
You may already know that it's gotten starred reviews in Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist and School Library Journal.
You may have heard that it's one of Publisher's Weekly's Best Picture Books of 2014, it's a School Library Journal Best Nonfiction Book of the Year, it's in the American Booksellers Association Best Books for Children Catalog, and it's on lists predicting the 2015 Caldecott for illustrator Melissa Sweet.
Of course I'm talking about
In this beautiful collection, master anthologist Paul B. Janeczko has organized 36 very short gems around the four seasons, illuminated by Melissa Sweet's both sophisticated and whimsical illustrations. Wow.
My father was a farmer and an artist. When he sketched my mother playing piano, his goal was to use as few lines as possible to tell that moment of my mother, the light from the window, that sonata.
In the same way, these poems show moments...and so much more in a few short lines.
Here's one of my favorites from this sterling anthology:
FIREFLY JULY
When I was ten, one summer night,
The baby stars that leapt
Among the trees like dimes of light,
I cupped, and capped, and kept.
Another of my favorites is the always amazing
Joyce Sidman’s “A Happy Meeting,” which describes what happens when rain meets dirt (first, “soft, cinnamon kisses,” then, “marriage: mud”).
And...surprise! I am honored that one of my poems is included in this collection:
SANDPIPERS
Sandpipers run with
their needle beaks digging--they're
hemming the ocean.
~ April Halprin Wayland
and look who just popped in to wave hello...
poet and anthologist Paul B. Janeczko and illustrator Melissa Sweet!
for hosting Poetry Friday today!
posted with affection by April Halprin Wayland in honor of
