Reviews: (by author)

Sidman, Joyce . Song of the Water Boatman & Other Pond Poems. Illus. Beckie Prange. Boston : Houghton Mifflin Co., 2005. ISBN 0-618-13547-2

In this pleasing picture book, Joyce Sidman combines scientific information with melodic poems focusing on pond life; the poems move through the seasons and culminate in the winter stillness as Sidman eloquently focuses on the numerous pond creatures: spring peeper, green-darner, diving beetles, cadis fly, and water boatman. Each has facts placed next to its poem. The movement between the scientific prose and the poem is seamless. Her eleven poems never seem forced or stilted; each is in a different poetic form: rhymed and unrhymed, haiku, and shaped/concrete poem. In addition to the poems and scientific information, Sidman's picture book includes a Glossary of scientific terms-helpful to young readers and to teachers.
Beckie Prange strikingly uses woodcuts tinted brightly with soothing watercolors, reminiscent of Mary Azarian's work. But Prange's are more colorful and dramatic. Both reading the poems and viewing the pictures give the reader a sense of tranquility and wonder. This book belongs in everyone's library.

Toni Rowden, January 2006

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