Happy Friday, Folks!
Ok. So I had another book ready to share today. But then, while I was writing my post, it started to snow!
Seriously!
On the Very Last Day of March?! (When, may I remind you, Mother Nature, we’re supposed to be going out like a lamb!)
I consider this unfair, especially as we were only just melting out from the two feet of snow we got two weeks ago.
And the poor little robins just came back the day before yesterday, brave and hopeful!
So I felt it was important to embrace spring today, in open defiance of the dreadful ice/sleet/rain/slush/snow falling out to the sky, and as a result I am re-sharing one of my all-time favorite picture books which is so gorgeous to look at and so beautifully written that it makes me feel spring even though it doesn’t look that way outside at all!
This book is a treasure for readers and for writers! If you haven’t had a chance to experience it, please! Treat yourself! 🙂
Title: Red Sings From Treetops: A Year In Colors
Written By: Joyce Sidman
Illustrated By: Pamela Zagarenski
Houghton Mifflin Books For Children, April 2009, Fiction
Suitable For: ages 5 and up
Themes: Colors, Seasons, Poetry
Opening:
“In SPRING,
Red sings from treetops:
cheer-cheer-cheer,
each note dropping
like a cherry
into my ear.
Red turns
the maples feathery,
sprouts in rhubarb spears;
Red squirms on the road after rain.”
(Don’t you just love that? Can’t you just hear that cardinal singing and see the worms wiggling on the pavement?)
Brief Synopsis: From the jacket: “Color comes alive in this whimsical, innovative book.” That pretty much sums it up!
Links To Resources: Junior Library Guild Activity Guide, Poem Starters, Readers Guide
Why I Like This Book: I love the lyrical language of this book. The author was so creative in her thinking – the way she describes the colors makes you see, feel, hear, touch, and taste Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. The art is exquisite and perfectly suited to the poetry. How can you not love lines like,
“Green waits
in the hearts of trees,
feeling
the earth
turn.”
I hope you’ll get a chance to read this book, linger over the language, enjoy the images it evokes, maybe challenge yourself or your children to come up with your own descriptions!
For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.
PPBF folks, please add your titles and post-specific links (and any other info you feel like filling out 🙂 ) to the form below so we can all come see what fabulous picture books you’ve chosen to share this week!
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!! 🙂
I hope spring is coming to your house 🙂
Susanna Leonard Hill 
Susanna, My mom says I was born March 27th in a blizzard, Mother Nature does seem fond of pulling her own “April Fool’s” jokes. Hope this is short-lived and Spring roars in, for you and the birds. 🙂
What a beautiful, poetic book. Thank you for featuring it again. It is a treasure for its language and illustrations.
Hi Susanna, this book looks lovely. Wonderful title and could be great for art projects with kids in class. I will have to get myself a copy. Spring is coming to Switzerland 🙂 Hooray!
I had the same thoughts about celebrating spring whatever the weather said! Ya Boo….
Sorry about the failed first attempt at posting link. That’s what you get when doing it quickly before leaving for work! 🙂
What a lovely book on the colours of the seasons. The writing sounds very dreamy. Thanks for sharing Susanna. Stay warm. Although we have had a few days of heavy rain summer down here is not about to leave us just yet, even though daylight saving is being reversed this weekend for us. Today was lovely with blue skies, warm and a high of 24degC. 🙂
LOVE Red Sings from Treetops! A perfect choice for a not-so-perfect last day of March.
Beautiful book to cheer your day! I agree with Patricia Nozell’s comment!
We’ve dodged the books in SW Ohio and have not had to shovel snow this year. All the systems went north and south of us. Just snow showers and relatively nice weather with some very cold days. But, yesterday was 65 – today 58. Then it gets warmer. Walked a lot during the winter. Our winters the past three years have been warmer. All of you on the coast got battered. Can’t even imagine!
Excellent suggestion. This book is a treat. And while our snow is finally almost completely melted, we have been experiencing torrential downpours for the last eleven hours. Yuck. It doesn’t look to clear up anytime soon. Sigh. To everything there is a season. Thanks for the book pick.
There’s nothing for me to do but scrape together enough snow to build a giant Snow Lamb.
And hopefully watch it melt very, very quickly!
Then sit down to read all these marvelous PPBF picks…
Finally we are in sync! It’s raining now, but the temperature dropped dramatically yesterday (went into a matinee at 68*, came out at 50*) and we expect 1-3″ of snow by tomorrow afternoon. I’m heading into the mountains though, where we’ll likely get more, though I’ll be speaking of Schnee (chilling with my German ladies!). Have a great weekend – hope your snow is pretty!
Snow? And pigs? Oh my!
Spring is definitely coming, Susanna…perhaps next year. 😉 😉
We are in the middle of the same blizzard you are getting…oh well, lots of time to write, I guess…and that’s always a good thing.
Love this book…singing from the treetops is good for the soul. 😉
I love love LOVE Joyce Sidman’s poetry. I just reread Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night. So good!
Why am I suddenly being redirected on every link I click on. Was fine this morning, and now I’m having trouble accessing some links. Hmm!
That sounds like an amazing book!