Review by New York Times Review
Some of the best picture books are not stories. They're poems that let kids reflect, imagine and think. COUNTLESS PICTURE books follow the same narrative structure, in which a character faces a challenge and then - at the end of approximately 500 words - overcomes that challenge, or doesn't. We call this story. "Read me a story," a child might beg, and so we do. But not all picture books are stories in the traditional sense, and often poetry is the tool that frees an author from the expectations of conflict and resolution. By trusting language, form, rhythm or sound to hold the reader's focus, a poet is able to slow down or speed up, to observe or reflect. Picture books in verse can meditate or meander, imagine or reminisce, examine one small aspect of the world carefully, or elicit deep emotion. one thing that sets picture books apart from titles for older readers is that we often share them with another person. In boom, BELLOW, BLEAT: Animal Poems for Two or More Voices (WordSong, 32 pp., $19.95; ages 3 to 6), Georgia Heard's text leans into this interactive experience, creating the space for distinct speakers in each poem. Each is intended as a sort of duet, with the text set in different colors to differentiate the alternating parts. The book relies heavily on the humor and child-friendly simplicity of animal noises, but the noises animals make are not always what you'd expect. In "We Don't Say Ribbit," a frog and toad offer the less expected noises they might actually make in the wild, from "quonk" to "errrgh," almost certain to entice laughter from young readers. In several of these poems, the language is more mature, as in "Flight of the Honeybees," where "Pale celery parasols" or "yellow petaled broccoli" may be a challenge to younger readers. But the beauty of poetry for small children is that the sounds of words can be appealing long before their meanings are fully understood. Many of these poems also incorporate refrains, allowing a young listener to repeat after another reader, as in "Song Thief," where the second reader, as mockingbird, repeats everything the first reader has just said. "Why is it / why is it / what I sing / what I sing / you sing too?" Heard's engaging poems, paired with Aaron DeWitt's bright digital images of the natural world, are designed to bring readers together, and with an informative author's note on various elements of the natural world, they may also find a welcome role in the classroom. "EACH TREE OFFERS / A STORY ..." begins Verlie Hutchens and Jing Jing Tsong's TREES (Beach Lane, 40 pp., $17.99; ages 4 to 8) and what unfolds is exactly that, a series of brief character studies, as page after page, readers are introduced to a surprisingly varied cast of arboreal personalities. Gracefully, each spread offers a distinct new friend for young readers. Pussy willow is shy, waiting for the one week in spring when "kitten velvet buds / adorn her modest twigs." By contrast, White Pine is an "unruly uncle," with his "buttons akilter" and "shaggy hair unkempt." Each tree is memorable, and Hutchens's vivid descriptions are full of movement and rentable moments. Tsong's colorful illustrations invite readers to peer from a range of vantage points and angles, as if looking down through the foliage. Young readers on walks may well experience the canopy above them a little differently after encountering the trees through Hutchens's and Tsong's eyes. Yet the book may do little to help them see people differently, since "Trees" also reinforces traditional gender roles. Female-identified trees are described as "silly" as they dance on "tippy toes" and sport "baubles." Meanwhile, the masculine trees are "strong" and "mighty" as well as "wise." An unfortunate choice for a book that might easily have resisted such bias. in reading poetry, we are sometimes so lulled by rhythm and sound that we forget to pay attention to meaning. This can be especially true with familiar poems, as they become ingrained in our consciousness. A picture book version of Robert Frost's the ROAD NOT TAKEN (Familius, 40 pp., $17.99; ages 4 to 8), with illustrations by Vivian Mineker, does a wonderful job of reintroducing a well-known poem without altering a single word. The choice to redivide stanzas and to rebreak lines, as well as to set the poem in the contemporary-feeling world of Mineker's soft palette, invites a fresh reading. In the beginning of the book, a young boy with a backpack stands near his dog, at a fork in the road. "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood." As the text reflects on this moment, we view him from a distance, and then from far above. We witness the boy's indecision, and finally his seemingly arbitrary choice. From there, the book continues, and we journey along with the poem and the boy, as he grows, goes to school, chooses a career and builds a family. Finally, at the poem's poignant end, we face the old man who has been reciting the poem and reminiscing all along, surrounded by his grandchildren. "And that has made all the difference." This is a book that begs rereading. Visually, it's unclear what beckons the boy along his initial path, and there's a sort of randomness, a meandering mazelike quality to the artwork, if an emotional inevitability to the poem's conclusion. Robert Frost might well have approved that ambiguity. "THIS IS FOR THE UNFORGETTABLE / the swift and sweet ones / who hurdled history / and opened a world / of possible." The beginning of Kwame Alexander and Kadir Nelson's THE UNDEFEATED (Versify/ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 40 pp., $17.99; ages 4 and up) feels anthemic. Listen up, the book seems to say, I'm going to share something important. What follows is a powerful tribute to the African-American experience, replete with joy and pride in the accomplishments of individual artists and athletes, leaders and thinkers. But the book also communicates a strong sense of the suffering without which this history would be incomplete. Alexander's resonant twisting language, and Nelson's rich painterly style, serve to capture not just individuals but the community as a whole. "The ones who survived / America / by any means necessary." The book continues. "And the ones who didn't." This second line of text is set starkly against blank white pages, demanding that the reader consider the lives lost and the voices silenced by our history. We see this same kind of restraint a little further along, in the startling repetition of "This is for the unspeakable." Three spreads repeat this simple line, allowing the reader to sit with images of unforgivable acts from both past and present, inviting us to silently bear witness when words fail. Elsewhere, the text swells again, as words and art offer a litany of historical figures and important moments, filling the ears with rhythms that demand attention, calling on poetry of the past. "This is for the unbelievable / The We Real Cool ones. / This is for the unbending. / The black as the night is beautiful ones." These lines sing, and the accompanying paintings feel like a walk through a portrait gallery. Poetry knows when to lean forward and when to pull back, and in "The Undefeated," Alexander has walked that line perfectly. This book will fill readers with a sense of the wealth and the cost of history. LAUREL SNYDER is the author of many books for young readers. Her chapter book "Charlie and Mouse: Even Better" will be published next month.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [July 21, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Free verse poems succinctly extol the virtues of 14 types of trees. For example, Aspen, tall and graceful, / dances on her tippy toes. / Her golden leaves like castanets / shimmer in the breeze. A double-spread illustration accompanies the words and shows aspen trees in autumn with their bright golden leaves in front of snow-capped mountains. The wide variety of trees mentioned include palm, red bud, dogwood, white pine, birch, and willow. Poems, consisting of only one or two sentences, explain why each type of tree is unique and special. The illustrations, rendered as a digital collage of block print and hand-painted elements, are lovely and include other living creatures in addition to each highlighted tree, such as people, birds, cats, and squirrels. Tall trees oak, spruce, and sequoia require the book to be turned vertically for some poems to be read and the illustrations admired. Many of the pictures have swirls in the background, reminiscent of the rings of a tree, that also make up the front and back endpapers. Some poems are lighthearted, such as the red bud with its pink-purple giggles, while others are reverent: The sequoia holds memories for the Tribe of Trees. Flowing words and striking illustrations combine beautifully in this tribute.--Maryann Owen Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Tree identification guidebooks aplenty offer information about bark types and branch structures, but tree fanciers know there is something more to understand: "Each tree offers/ a story/ a clue/ a dance/ that makes it/ its very own/ self." These fanciful poems conjure telltale personalities for 15 common tree varieties. Maple "sings to the heavens" while palm "saves all her leaves/ for her most amazing hat." Readers may be troubled to notice that trees personified as female often have attributes centered on style ("Sycamore, the fashion queen") and clothes ("Willow dances/ in her narrow kimono"), while trees gendered "male" get characteristics such as wisdom ("Apple Tree,/ wise and gnarled") and strength ("Oak stands strong"). But it is the one flat note in an otherwise joyful song. Tsong's block-printed and hand-painted elements add depth and movement to cheerful digital collage illustrations that cleverly vary location and perspective, adding an extra layer of fun to the accounting of quirky tree personalities. Ages 4-8. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-This picture book contains short free verse poems about 14 different species of trees along with sweeping spreads of corresponding artwork. The different personalities of the trees are beautifully captured by Jing Jing Tsong's detailed paintings and block prints, which she arranges into digital collages. The artwork is full of sensitivity and whimsy and highlights the interconnectedness of all life; this is where the book truly shines. Some spreads invite readers to turn the book lengthwise, allowing the tall trees to pierce the sky. Others, like the panorama of the palm tree, playfully dance widthwise across the page, following the breeze. In many spreads, children are dwarfed by the trees' magnificence, admiring them, playing beneath their leaves, or even being antagonized by a windy branch. The reader's vantage point hovers above the ground and sometimes even takes a squirrel's-eye view, as in the delightfully golden aspen spread. Hutchens' poetry personifies each tree, likening some to wise, old grandparents and others to unruly uncles. By humanizing the trees, she facilitates emotional intimacy. Young readers will come away wondering about the trees in their neighborhoods, and the book could encourage their own creative exploration. -VERDICT A gentle, gorgeous book to share with the youngest explorers of the natural world. Highly recommended.-Shannon O'Connor, Unami Middle School, Chalfont, PA © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A book of poetry that celebrates trees.Each double-page spread has a nonrhyming poem about a specific type of tree accompanied by art showing the tree in its environment. The first spread is the only one divergent from the pattern, with this pleasant, succinct introduction: "Each tree offers / a story / a clue / a dance / that makes it / its very own / self." These words show up clearly in white against a gray-green late-autumn background. Different varieties of trees along with several people can be seen from an aerial view as bright leaves swirl about. There is a feeling of exuberance. Throughout the well-laid-out book, the art, a skilled merging of printmaking and digital techniques, deftly complements the text, using facts about each tree to create divergent moodsincluding a surprisingly foreboding mood at the end. Language is elegant and accessible, with personification as the useful, key poetic device. One significant shortcoming: Every tree-descriptive poem but the final two contains a gender-specificand often stereotypicalpronoun. Some of the funnier poems require gender for their imagery, such as imagining a scraggly white pine as an "unruly uncle." However, unnecessarily, the musical maple offers "her" sap after a long, dark winter; "Silly Palm" wears all "her" leaves on top; the mighty oak is, of course, male. Fortunately, the art for each tree is realistic, if stylized. If the aspen danced on its "tippy toes," readers would still see the same tree swaying in the wind.There's a lot to love here for readers who can look past those pronouns. (Picture book/poetry. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
