| Title | : | Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0547014945 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780547014944 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 32 |
| Publication | : | First published April 6, 2009 |
| Awards | : | Caldecott Medal (2010), Claudia Lewis Award (2010), Minnesota Book Award Children’s Literature (2010), CYBILS Award Poetry (2009) |
Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors Reviews
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Lovely poetry about the colors and changes in the seasons. I love the play of colors with emotions. The art work is worthy, it just doesn't do a whole lot for me. Joyce goes through the seasons picking out colors. For winter, a page states grey and brown are all that's left. Very true. She also talks about the trees being black and looking like skeletal bones.
I thought it was good. I enjoyed the verse and it didn't sweep me up and away either. I read this to the kids and the niece gave it 2 stars so followed the nephew.
I don't have a whole lot to say about it. -
On a purely and utterly textual level, I have absolutely adored the both colourful and oh so esoterically, sweetly preceptive seasonally inspired poetry, the lyrical nature verses author Joyce Sidman presents in Red Sings From Treetops. The words used, featured, they to and for me so totally and completely capture and distill what the four seasons, what spring, summer, autumn and winter represent and mean (they are lively, sweet, and yes, glowingly shining with exquisitely colourfully hued gracefulness, pure and caressingly tender lyrical perfection).
And if Red Sings From Treetops were indeed presented to me as simply a collection of poetry, a compilation of lyrical offering glorifying and celebrating the four seasons, I would most likely be rating it with four and perhaps even five stars.
However, and this is a very massive and frustrating however, I personally have not at all enjoyed illustrator Pamela Zagarenski's accompanying illustrations (and have not really been able to even mildly appreciate them, their 2010 Caldecott Honour award quite notwithstanding). For although I have previously rather enjoyed Pamela Zagarenski's artwork and illustrative style, her accompanying pictorial offerings for Red Sings From Treetops are for one and first and foremost much too minutely small and thus massively difficult for me to even adequately visualise with my rapidly ageing eyes and for two, the images shown, well, they mostly seem rather exaggerated, visually strange and to the point that they do not really in any way complement or compliment Joyce Sidman's poetry, feeling continuously and distinctly out of place and leaving me so massively disappointed on an aesthetic level, that I am in truth only able to truly enjoy and savour Red Sings From Treetops and fully submerse myself in Joyce Sidman's brilliant and lovely lyricism if I am able to actively ignore and forget about the illustrations. And since I have not really been all that much able to accomplish and achieve this, and as the illustrations always do seem to annoyingly and frustratingly intrude and interfere, I can and will only consider a low three star rating at best for Red Sings From Treetops, with a full five stars for the text, for Joyce Sidman's outstandingly superb seasonal nature poetry, her paean to spring, summer, autumn and winter, but only one tiny star for Pamela Zagarenski's accompanying illustrations, for at least for and to me, they have left nothing but disappointment and aesthetic frustration, and have resulted in a rather major headache to boot, because I have constantly been forced to squint due to the tininess, the lack of visual clarity of the featured, the presented pictures. -
I love this book! While primarily a collection of poetry about different facets of the seasons, there is also a continuity in both the poetry and the illustration which makes it a story. It is like a love song to the seasons and to all the treasures we find if we have eyes and hearts for nature. I love how the colors keep reappearing in different ways throughout the seasons. Poetry is so subjective and I admit that I am not always a fan of children's poetry books, but I think this is a true gem that can be enjoyed at any time of year.
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This book is truly creative and unusual in a very good way. I admit it took me several pages to get used to the illustration of the person/queen? Then, I grew fond of all the illustrations.
So unique! While this is free form poetry story of the passing of the seasons honors the joys of each season, my favorite aspect was how the many colors written about were written in their color. This makes it terrific for teaching colors too, and not just the typical colors featured in “learn your colors” books. There’s gray and brown and various shades of blue, and so many more. Some pages feature one color that’s mentioned over and over; other pages mingle the colors. It’s very aesthetically pleasing and educational too.
I love how everybody wears crowns on their heads, including the dog, except for one character who is wearing a live bird on its head at one point.
I liked the poetic story and I think many children will agree, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some children enjoy the pictures and the colors (written out and in the illustrations) more than the story/poetry/text. In my opinion, the final result is fabulous and comes together perfectly. -
As a child I had many favorite books and it was only when I got older that they crystallized in my brain enough so that I could chose a “favorite”. But if you asked me today what book I loved more than any other, I don’t think I’d be too off-base when I said it was Tasha Tudor’s
A Time to Keep. Now there are a couple of reasons for this. I liked how she drew cupcakes, I liked the corgis, and I particularly liked the idea of kids running around playing games and pranks each month. But the thing that stuck with me, and continues to stick with me after all these years, was the feeling I got when I read that book. It was my first encounter with the evocative and I’ve never quite forgotten it. It’s something I like to keep a lookout for when I read picture books today. Generally, I don’t quite find it, but once in a great while there’s a book that hits all the right chords. This year, that book would have to be Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors. A follow-up of sorts to Joyce Sidman and Pamela Zagarenski’s
This is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness, Sidman and Zagarenski do what they can to conjure up what seasonal change feels like. It’s nothing like their previous book, and everything you’d want in a poetry collection.
If you’re going to write poems about the seasons, it’s good to find a way to do so. Why not use colors then? Poet Joyce Sidman takes on the challenge, describing each season with a series of six or so poems, sometimes using the colors you’d expect (green for spring, of course) and sometimes using colors you wouldn’t normally consider (gray for summer). The poems elicit thrills as they discuss the small moments that make a season feel real to a person. Watching moths flutter outside a screen door. The suddenness of a spring storm. The different shades of blue you spot on the waves of a lake or ocean. And in almost every picture a red bird flies high above, the Red who sings the seasons, one after another after another.
I don’t actually know the story behind this book. A co-worker informed me that rather that lots of little separate poems this is actually a book that’s just one big poem broken up into small sections. Maybe it’s true, but that’s not how it felt to me. While there was certainly a connection between one section and another (she doesn’t just throw autumn into the middle of spring or summer amidst the cold blowing winds of December) they are separate little entities in and of themselves. Each little poem (if you see them as such) is a different color, and not always the color you might associate with a season. Pink for winter? Makes a lot more sense with Sidman tells you that “Pink blooms powder-soft over pastel hills.” At the same time, colors repeat themselves. Pink also happens to be a spring color. “And here, in secret places, peeps Pink: hairless, featherless, the color of new things.” The color is now the crisp cold morning light on the one hand, and the soft unprotected underbelly of a helpless creature on the other.
Generally I don’t have much respect for summer. Don’t get me wrong, I love it when I’m in it. But reading about it? Blah blah sand blah blah sun. So how much more impressive it is to me when Sidman brings summer to life (just as she does every season) in a way that doesn’t rely on old tropes and overused phrases? When talking about a warm twilight she writes simply, “Purple pours into summer evenings one shadow at a time, so slowly I don’t notice until hill, house, book in my hand, and Pup’s Brown spots are all Purple.” So she does a good summer, but the real test? How does she treat my favorite season of the year, fall? Well for starters she brings up the green that you see in the fall. “Green is tired, dusty, crisp around the edges.” That is true. Brown rules the fall, red falls from the trees, and yellow becomes the school bus. Purple is the smell of, “old leaves, crushed berries, squishy plums with worms in them. Purple: the smell of all things mixed together.” And finally, the great and powerful orange of Halloween alongside the black “resting in dark branches”. Brilliant.
And of course, there are the pictures. Another co-worker of mine (they’re an outspoken crew) found the fact that a lot of animals and people wear crowns in this book just a bit too twee. This is true. There is a crown on the main character, whosoever that person is, and on the animals as well. I agree that crowns can be considered twee (particularly when they hover over the baby birds’ heads) but fortunately (A) I wasn’t distracted by them until I was told to notice them and (B) I find them more fun than anything else. Crooked crowns like those worn by Jughead or Bugs Meaney are particularly cool. Besides, it takes a hard and hardened heart not to enjoy the illustrations in this book, which are not twee in the least. Now I’ll confess to you that Zagarenski is working with mixed media paintings on wood (with computer illustrations for spice) and I am not always a mixed media fan. I tend to like my media unmixed, but this artist does a stand up job of conjuring up the very temperature of a season. Those black summers feel muggy and that fall so crisp. You come to trust Zagarenski’s choices. So much so that even a whale in a night sky makes perfect sense in the context of its surroundings. You do not question these selections. She gives you no reason to.
The design is particularly pleasing too. The designers of the world simply do not get enough credit sometimes. Maybe this is all Zagarenski, but the poems really work beautifully within and with the illustrations. We’ve all seen those children’s books where the picture book text has been dismissed to a plain white border, produced solely for the purpose of making the words legible. Here the words are readable and they always make sense that they crop up where they do. You wouldn’t put them anywhere else.
From a purposeful standpoint I will sometimes get teachers or parents in my library looking for poetry collections that support the curriculum in one way or another. I had one woman come in looking for poems about shapes (it can be found, but it’s not easy). Colors and seasons are similar requests, and I’m sure that there are children’s librarians all over the country fielding such reference questions. Sometimes you have to rely on some dilapidated old title that just happens to be what you need. And sometimes, just sometimes, you can hand them something like Red Sings from Treetops secure in the knowledge that you’ve just introduced your patrons to something fabulous. The first time I hand this to a patron I know I’ll be positively giddy and probably repeating “Have you seen it? Have you seen it? Have you seen it?” like a broken record. Beautiful in every possible sense of word, this is a book that engages both the heart and the eyes. Necessary purchase.
For ages 4-8. -
It's official. I'm falling in love with children's poetry. This book is wonderful. I am now inspired to read all the Caldecott books. I know I won't love them all, but this is a gem and I hope I will discover more.
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Poet Joyce Sidman and artist Pamela Zagarenski, who previously collaborated on 2007's
This Is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness, joined forces once again in this lovely picture-book, which was chosen as a Caldecott Honor Book in 2010. An exploration of the seasons, and the colors that weave through them - the new, "shy" green of spring, the "humming, shimmering, snoozing" blue of summer, the "fat and glossy" brown of fall, the "powder-soft" pink of winter - it boasts gorgeous mixed media illustrations that perfectly complement the poetic narrative.
Truthfully, I found the artwork in Red Sings from Trees far more compelling than the text, and my high four-star rating is more a result of aesthetic than literary appreciation. It's not that there was anything wrong with Sidman's poetry - in fact, some of the images were immensely evocative - but the finished product simply didn't speak to me. Zagarenski's illustrations, on the other hand, with their brilliantly appropriate use of color, and their many quirky details - the beautiful butterfly sail, in summer; the fabric-like interiors of the pumpkin, in fall - really drew me in! Highly recommended to anyone who appreciated beautiful picture-book art, and (because tastes vary), to young readers who appreciate poetry. -
4.5 out of 5
Joyce Sidman's free verse about the colors of the seasons is unique, incredibly evocative, and delightfully perceptive. Here are a few of my favorite lines from each season:"In SPRING,
Red sings
from treetops:
cheer-cheer-cheer,
each note dropping
like a cherry
into my ear."
"And here,
in secret places,
peeps Pink:
hairless,
featherless,
the color of
new
things."
"In SUMMER,
White clinks in drinks.
Yellow melts
everything it touches...
smells like butter,
tastes like salt."
"In FALL,
Green is tired,
dusty,
crisp around the edges.
Green sighs with relief:
I've ruled for so long.
Time for Brown to take over."
"In the WINTER dawn,
Pink blooms
powder-soft
over pastel hills.
Pink prickles:
warm fingers
against cold cheeks."
Pamela Zagarenski's mixed-media illustrations in Red Sings from Treetops are colorful, whimsical, and exquisite, and they match Joyce Sidman's imaginative and playful verse perfectly:
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Author Joyce Sidman blends a journey through the seasons with whimsical color poems in Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors. Some of the comparisons are standard ("Green is new in spring.") and others have wings ("Green sighs with relief: I've ruled for so long. Time for Brown to take over."). It is the imaginings of color as objects with emotions and sound and movement that make this an ideal model text for teachig color poems. I am using it in exactly that capacity, though this should be enjoyed for the simple pleasure of poetry and descriptive language that it provides.
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Move through the seasons with the colors built into verses dedicated to a color and the season. Delight in the fact that spring is more than just green as Sidman weaves all of the colors into spring some in quite surprising and insightful ways. The whimsical paintings of Zagarenski also offer a complexity and uniqueness to the title. This is much more than spring being green and filled with flowers. Here spring is red with cardinals, white with lightning, blue sky, yellow goldfinches, and pink with baby birds. Summer, autumn and winter follow each with all of the colors found and celebrated in different ways.
Sidman’s poetry will pull the reader into the book, offering lovely moments such as the yellow of summer:
Yellow melts
everything it touches…
smells like butter,
tastes like salt.
Isn’t that summer captured in a color? And that is just one color in one season. The senses are involved in this color book, as is rhythm and a sense of the actual season itself. It is a picture book that allows you to think of the colors you associate with a season, the unexpected, the small touches. I can see this being used in an art class to inspire students to paint more than the usual colors for seasonal pieces as well as a very successful poetry picture book for use in general classes.
Appropriate for ages 5-8, this book will work best with time afterwards for discussion because it will have everyone buzzing with new ideas. -
This is a wonderful book of poems that describe the colors throughout the year as the seasons change. Very appropriate for our latitude (compared to when we lived in Hawaii!), this book shows how nature's colors wax and wane and change all year.
The poems are short and the illustrations are colorful, with lots of patterns and textures. I love that the poems are so expressive and paint a word picture that children can really grasp and appreciate. I listened as our oldest read these poems aloud; we really enjoyed reading this book together.
This book was selected as one of the books for the
September 2017- Caldecott Honors 2008-2012 discussion at the
Picture-Book Club in the Children's Books Group here at Goodreads. -
"In Summer, White clinks in drinks. Yellow melts everything it touches... smells like butter, tastes like salt." In Red Sings From the Treetops, Joyce Sidman takes you on a beautiful journey of the seasons that stimulates the senses. You can almost feel the seasons as she describes them and await each color and how she'll relate it to the season.
I enjoyed reading this book to myself and was engaged by how Sidman describes the seasons using color. This is a great book for a read-aloud in grades 1-3. The opportunities for discussion about what Sidman is saying are endless (What does she mean when she says, "In the winter woods, Gray and Brown hold hands. Their brilliant sisters- Red, Orange, and Yellow- have all gone home."
Pamela Zagarenski's illustration will help younger students to understand the poetry even more. -
I wanted to give this 5 stars, but I just didn't like the illustrations-- and this one was a Caldecott honor book! What were those wheels under the woman's and the dog's feet? Why was the woman always wearing a crown, and sometimes the dog too? Nevertheless, the text by Sidman was absolutely beautiful, describing the colors during the different seasons. It reminded me of Mary O'Neill's Hailstones and Halibut Bones. In fact, the two would pair nicely. Recommended, despite the peculiar illustrations.
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Other poets and illustrators have done seasonal books, but this one is especially nice. While the words celebrate the different colors prominent in each of the seasons, Zagarenski's mixed media paintings on wood and computer illustration use a lot of geometrical shapes: round suns and moons; triangular clothing and tri-corn hats; square buildings; crescent parasols; diamond kites; etc. They also highlight the colors related in the poems. I really liked the painting of a frog climbing up a screened window to catch a moth. A unique vision.
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I just couldn't get into it, am personally not charmed by this. The concept is fine, but the art is (to me) unappealing, and everything is so small and crowded that I just can't see any part of it (or even feel the gestalt). And I get a headache trying to read the words.
I did find this bit: "In the winter woods... gray and brown sway shyly, the only beauties left."
Still, I adore Sidman's science books and will keep reading her works, even when illustrated in styles I would not choose. -
What I loved especially was the recurrence of colors, their different incarnations in the different seasons. And the illustrations were arresting: crowns on people, birds and dogs--all beings are noble--and doors in trees, the sky--and writing here and there. Beautiful picture book. Many, many thanks to Ambrosia Rose for giving me this gift.
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What a wonderful way to show children how colors are everywhere and how they define things. My favorite line in the book is "In spring, even the rain tastes Green." Isn't that so true?
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Beautiful, lyrical poetry about colors and seasons,
Even better if read aloud,
This is my current favorite of Joyce Sidman's books. -
I didn't love the poem, but it and the art worked really well together.
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Genre: Children’s Book, Poetry, Science
Summary:
Aspects of each season are portrayed through poems that highlight the wildlife, weather, pivotal events, and occurrences. The colors that routinely occur throughout each season are also brought to the forefront in both the poetry and the text color.
The illustrations capture a magical world, filled with life and change. The artistic technique of mixed media gives added depth and texture, bringing a whimsical quality to the characters and animals. The warmth of the colors in spring, summer, and fall contrast beautifully with the cooler, subdued colors of winter.
Positives/Negatives:
The words chosen for the poetry communicate an even greater sense of the meaning as they capitalize on alliteration and onomatopoeia for enhancement. The color chosen for the text of the color words adds extra emphasis and visual demarcation. The additional contrast against the background also highlights the words even without reading the poetry, clueing the reader and creating anticipation before investigating the text.
The recurring geometric themes within the illustrations provide a lovely sense of continuity and balance. The moving circles contribute to the sense of change and progress in a subtle way. The use of semi transparent elements, clouds, background patterns, water, and other details give a great feeling of movement and depth, bringing life to each page.
Examples:
The synonyms included for the color words are directly connected to the more basic words providing an easy link for the reader. This is also stressed by the text color for each word reflecting the variation in that color. “In summer, Blue grown new names, turquoise, azure, cerulean.”
In establishing a larger connection and relationship between the colors the interconnectedness of the seasons is again brought forth. In both illustration and text this concept is reinforced. “Purple pours into summer evenings one shadow at a time so slowly I don’t notice until hill, house, book in my hand, and Pup’s Brown spots are all Purple.”
Curriculum Connection:
Using the seasons that are a major theme throughout the book as a foundation, activities focusing on the elements of each season, the weather, the animals, the temperature and other aspects can provide opportunities for research, compare and contrast exercises, and graphic organizers relating similar events and items to each other.
The children using their own inspirational topic can recreate the poetry within the text using both the seasons and color words as a fundamental structure. They can pick another topic and chose a color word to include within their own poetry. They can then draw an illustration similar to those in the book highlighting the topic and the specific color. The use of mixed media can be encouraged as the children can collect items such as newspapers, magazines, scrapbook paper and other items for inclusion in their artwork.
Focusing more exclusively on the media aspect of the book, art projects can be created using a variety of elements that the children can collect for any number of sources. They might do a project about food using items they can find in the kitchen, for example tin foil, plastic wrap, paper grocery bags, etc. Perhaps a project about the outdoors using leaves, flowers, grass, and tree bark for their art media. Any project can be conceived and the items for their media can be limited only by their imagination and the need to keep it from spoiling or attracting critters :) -
I wasn't sure how much I would really like this one from the book description. And I didn't immediately love it. But the more time I spent with each page, reading the text and then noticing all the fun details in the illustrations, I really started to love it! So I went back to the beginning and started over. This isn't a book to just read your way through and glance at the illustrations. This is a book to read and reread, to savor and enjoy, to read aloud, to pore over the illustrations and discover fun new details every time you visit a page.
I would LOVE to see the actual paintings for these illustrations. It looks like they would have such interesting layers and textures. The book information says the illustrations are "mixed media paintings on wood and computer illustration." But that isn't enough information! I really want to know more about Pamela Zagarneski's process. I saw a video once where Eric Carle explained his process while demonstrating a sample illustration. I would love to see something similar for Pamela Zagarneski. I want to know the significance of the numbers scattered throughout the illustrations - 15, 193, 5, 0, 1, 32. Also, there are recurring themes with shapes - circles, squares, triangles. And, as others have mentioned, most of the people and animals in the illustrations are wearing crowns. I'd love to know why!
I don't remember the last time I've read a picture book where the text and the illustrations worked so seamlessly together. I kept finding details in the illustrations that would expand the text for me in unexpected and fascinating ways. Or I would notice something in the illustrations, wonder why it was there, and would find an explanation in the text. For example, on fall's page for black and white, I noticed a giant whale in the sky behind the white moon. Why is a whale in the sky? Because "there is White, resting in dark branches. It sings a song of waxing and waning, swims up through its cool sky-pool." If the sky is a pool, finding a whale there isn't so unusual. Another example is on fall's brown page. I wondered what "Brown gleams in my hand: a tiny round house, dolloped with roof" meant, then I looked over to see the lady holding an acorn in her hand. Of course!
And I haven't even mentioned the amazing "sensoriness" of the poetry. (Is that a word?) Joyce Sidman got it exactly right. I loved her
Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems, but this seems even a step up from that. Probably the best way to illustrate is with an example: "In SUMMER, White clinks in drinks. Yellow melts everything it touches . . . smells like butter, tastes like salt."
On the surface, this seems like a fairly straightforward book about the colors of the seasons. It works on that level, but there is so much more here to learn and enjoy. This definitely deserves its Caldecott honor. -
Suggested Grade Levels: 1st-5th grade.
Genre: Picture Book in Poetic Form
Themes: Colors of the Seasons
Awards: 2010 Caldecott Honor, 2010 White Ravens Award, 2010 Claudia Lewis Award and many more.
This is a true poetry delight for both young and old readers alike. It is a picture book done in poetic form describing the seasons through colors. Joyce Sidman does an exquisite job of creating familiar images for the reader using intricate word choice. Readers can see, hear and feel the seasons right along with her, “In spring, White sounds like storms; snapped twigs and bouncing hail, blink of lighting and rattling BOOM!” The colors of the seasons are felt, not just seen. The book follows the cycle of the seasons and circles back to spring where the book started leaving the reader feeling refreshed in a simple way, having just lived the emotions of year through colors.
The illustrations are mixed media paintings on wood and computer illustration. The mixed media gives the illustrations a collage/paper cutout look and allows the reader’s interpretation of the words to link to the collage of colors in the illustrations. There is one child that is followed throughout the illustrations keeping things familiar to the reader and allowing the changes in seasons to be more the focus in the illustrations. Also the child wears a crown throughout the book that gives the book a magical feel. This is kind of how the season are, almost magical in the way they can spark such change around us.
It would be a strong book to use while teaching how to write poetry. The concept of poetry can be overwhelming for many young writers. This book is easily relatable for these young writers because it covers two familiar topics; seasons and colors. I would focus on two concepts with this book. First, I would focus on the use of familiar topics for writing poetry. Students could pick one season of their own to try writing a poem about by describing what they see, hear and feel in the seasons. Second, this book has excellent word choice. I would have students find two words that were powerful in the book and try to use them in their poem to nudge them toward using new words. -
Pamela Zagarenski’s art is vibrant and surprising. She has a playful, very European style. Every time I open the book, something new pops out at me in the illustrations. Her work captures the essence of Joyce Sidman’s loving and original ode to both seasons and colours. I have read a lot of poetry, and what makes Sidman stand out from the rest is the fresh and surprising imagery she conjures with her pristine and thoughtful word choice. I’m still mooning over this image:
In the winter woods,
Gray and Brown
hold hands.
Their brilliant sisters—
Red, Orange, and Yellow—
have all gone home.
Gray and Brown sway shyly,
the only beauties left.
The teacher in me is reeling with all the potential creative projects that stem from this book. What does yellow smell like in spring, in winter? Which colour is the meanest? Which one is the life of the party? What sound does purple make in a snowstorm? It is a wonder I was able to get back to work.
Red Sings from Treetops is one of those books that demands reverence. You must find a friend, sit, and take turns reading it aloud to each other. -
April is Poetry month, so I'm happy start it with a beautiful poetry picture book. Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors is full of lovely imagery and poetic language. Through its pages, colors take on the seasons. Red sings from treetops during Spring, Yellow slips goldfinches their spring jackets. Blue grows new names in the summer: turquoise, azure, cerulean. White dazzles day and turns night inside out in the summer. Just beautiful! This is a book to be read slowly, over and over, all at once, or just the verses for the season of the time. Its illustrations are also gorgeous, dreamlike, and works of art on their own (they were awarded the Caldecott Honor).
Some of Red Sing's vocabulary might seem advanced for younger kids, but I've always believed in exposure, exposure, exposure. Children are sponges, drench them in rich language and they'll surprise you. For teachers, this book offers plenty of opportunities to explore personification, onomatopoeias, metaphors, similes and of course, poetry. Happy Poetry Month! -
When I was shopping for books for my goddaughter, and lamenting the mediocre quality of so many of the offerings, a friend of my mother's pointed me at this one. And I'm so glad she did.
Like many children's books, it's written in verse - but not the usual scansion-and-rhyme. Rather, it's done in free verse; not the "I was too lazy to make things rhyme so I'll just put some random line breaks in" sort, but with real thought and care put into the word selection, and with such effective use of rhythm, onomatopoeia, and the occasional internal rhyme as to create an almost synesthetic experience. The description really isn't exaggerating when it says this book will help you feel color. And (always important with books aimed at kids!) they make it so much fun to read aloud. The pictures are well-matched, with a similar combination of whimsy and imagination and realism.
Highly recommended. -
In this story, the author brings life to colors and the different seasons they are a part of. She does an amazing job at incorporating the colors and seasons and combining them with the senses of smell, sight, sound, and taste. It is like a love song to the seasons and the amazing things that come with each season. The poetic language in this book is truly beautiful, and would be a great poetry book to use in classrooms, especially with younger readers. This will also help young readers get a grasp of associating colors and seasons, in such a beautiful and mystical sort of way. The illustrations in this book are original and use colors with their seasonal palettes; creating breathtaking illustrations. I believe that this is a poetry book that could also tie in greatly with curriculum in one way or another. This is a book that engages both the soul and the eyes, and is a truly a good read.
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Audience: 3rd-5th grade. I think boys and girls would enjoy this book. The way it is written would possibly go right over the heads of students younger than 3rd grade. However, if you were reading it for fun, the ideas of colors and seasons would work for younger than 3rd.
Award list: 2010 Caldecott Honor Book.
Appeal: The first time I read this book I read it too fast to really understand it. I found myself confused and not enjoying it. Then I reread it slower, stopping and thinking after each sentence. I discovered that it is a book of many trades. It has poetry, colors, seasons and neat artwork all wrapped into one book. Therefore, I feel that "Red Sings from the Treetops: A year in colors" would work for all of the ideas I listed. I actually enjoyed this book enough the second time around that I have considered purchasing it. -
While I enjoyed this as did my children, it wasn't as awe inspiring as some of Sidman's other science books such as Ubiquitous. However, the illustrations were beautiful and the poems were still good. We really enjoyed noticing which colors reappeared each season and which colors didn't appear in a particular season. My children were very surprised that pink was the first color featured in winter, but then we agreed that it fit:
In the WINTER dawn,
Pink blooms
Powder-soft
Over pastel hills.
Pink prickles:
Warm fingers
Against cold cheeks.
While blue is my favorite color, I think summer's poem for black is my favorite:
Black holds secrets in summer:
Night-sky black,
Underneath-stones black.
Black that flits and swoops.
Deep, wild black
That stares from the eyes
Of a surprised raccoon.
Black in my own eyes,
Staring back.
