Joyce Sidman Poetry

Sidman, Joyce. 2009. Red Sings from the Treetops: A Year in Colors. Ill. by Pamela Zagarenski. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children. ISBN: 978-0-547-01494-4.

Book Review:

Award-winning poet Joyce Sidman (Songs of the Water Boatman and Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night) joyfully takes the reader through the seasons in poems focusing on the colors found in nature throughout the year in her book Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors.

Beginning in Spring, when “red sings from treetops: cheer-cheer-cheer” like a bird, Sidman takes the reader on a poetic journey through Summer, Fall and finally Winter when red appears again in the poem on the last page.  Then, the metaphoric “red hops to treetops [and] fluffs its feathers against the cold. Cheer-cheer-cheer, it begins to sing…”

This eloquent author has a way with words, providing wonderful visual images through her descriptions of the colors found in each season, even ones you wouldn't expect, like pink in Winter: “Pink prickles: warm fingers against cold cheeks,” describing the tingling warmth our fingers feel after being too long in the snow.

Pamela Zagarenski’s illustrations, using a combination of mixed media on wood, computer illustrations, fabric patterns and bits of newsprint, add texture and provide images to flesh out the words of the poems. There is a surreal quality to her characters and figures in the illustrations, and her use of color, some muted, some bright, evokes the passing of the seasons as well as the author’s words.

Without the illustrations, some of the poems would be more difficult to comprehend, which indeed makes the marriage of poet and illustrator a successful one.  Images of purple and yellow flowers let the reader better understand that when the author writes, “In spring, Yellow and Purple hold hands/They beam at each other/with bright velvet faces” that she is referring to spring flowers.  In the summer, “white clinks in drinks./Yellow melts everything it touches,"…and Zagarenski gives us images of two friends drinking from cups with ice and eating corn dripping in butter.

After spending time browsing through this wonderful poetry picture book, I dare anyone to not see the colors of the seasons in a new and surprising way.

Sharing the Poetry:

Books about seasons abound for younger children, and this one could be successfully used to complement a study on the seasons along with informative books such as Seasons by Patricia Ryon Quiri or Nature’s Paintbox: a Seasonal Gallery of Art and Verse by Patricia Thomas.  Children could then pick their favorite season, illustrate a picture themselves, or perhaps try their hand at a writing a descriptive seasonal poem.

Selected Poem:

These poems are so delightful, it is hard to choose just one, so I am providing portions of poems from each season:

Spring:

Yellow slips goldfinches

their spring jackets.

Yellow shouts with light!

Summer:

And where is Blue?

Humming, shimmering,

snoozing in the lazy haze.

Dancing on water

with Yellow and Green.

In summer

Blue grows new names:

turquoise,  

          azure,

                   cerulean.

Fall:

In fall,

Yellow grows wheels

and lumbers

down the block,

blinking:

Warning --- classrooms ahead.

Winter:

Where is Green in winter?

Green darkens, shrinks,

stiffens into needles.

Green waits

in the hearts of trees,

feeling

the earth

turn.

References:

Books in Print. n.d Red Sings from Treetops: a year in colors. http://ezproxy.twu.edu:3959/DetailedView.aspx?hreciid=|29713541|31168094&mc=USA# (accessed April 18, 2014).

Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database. n.d. http://ezproxy.twu.edu:4529/index.php/booksearch/display?page=1 (accessed April 18, 2014).