Poetry Friday - No Pancakes! It's "Wild Brunch"

 It's Poetry Friday, and Tabatha Yeatts-Lonske is hosting HERE on her blog The Opposite of Indifference.    Thanks for hosting, Tabatha, and for bringing us so lovely a poem about murmuration and more!

          I first met David L. Harrison in 1983 when I took my daughter to a book signing, and she wanted his new book, A Book of Giant Stories. I remember he was so kind to her and signed it in a special way. Back then, I didn't really know David's poetry power, but when Highlights offered a week of poetry writing with him, I went! And, then, I went the next year, too. Being at Highlights with David was so much fun, as were the ones with Rebecca Dotlich and Georgia Heard. I took the book back that second time, and he signed it then for Sarah's daughters, Ingrid and Imogene! I guess they'd better keep it for their daughters! 

        

          If you want to know more about David, you can see his extraordinary bio by googling his name on line and choosing among the many sites about him. He is now the Poet Laureate of Missouri and of Drury University, from which he has a science degree. He knows a lot about science, and you'll understand that when you see his titles that show off his knowledge. 

         I'm excited to share David's latest title today, showing off a few animals, what and how they eat!  Thanks to Charlesbridge Publishing for my copy!

           Various animals munch through the pages with David's usual humor shining through. There are piranhas where advice is warranted: "When piranha's on the hunt,/you're wise if you retreat." And, much larger, but also in the water, the hippo eats at night. Did you know? They have "teeth like spikes" and in the wisest, but funniest, of an underlying meaning, David writes, "No one ever called/a hippo sweet." The poem shows the warning of just how very fast those un-sweet beasts can run!    

           When he writes about aardvarks, the poem ends with "No matter/how you try to hide–/you can't."  A favorite reminds me of a memory I have. This poem shares all the things a seagull eats: "Darting fish,/leaping shrimp, bugs snatched in flight," and ending with "food from stashes/shaded by beach umbrellas." Once, I sat with a friend on the beach but under an overhang, about to take a bit of my sandwich when SWOOP, a seagull came flying through and grabbed it! As the poem says, "few with feathers/find more ways,/ to fill their bill."

            You can find and enjoy poems about jellyfish, narwhals, houseflies, and more, even one animal that does not eat in David's new book of poetry. Giles Laroche fills the double-page spreads with luscious illustrations, where the cover says he creates with as many as eight layers, "drawing, cutting, painting, gluing". Each one takes me into that animal's world!

            Added at the back are three different sections: "Swimming Eaters," "Land-based Eaters," and "Flying Eaters," which offer more information about each animal. There is also a bibliography for further reading. 

            Two companion books by this author/illustrator pair have come out in earlier years, also offering beautifully written and illustrated poems. Their covers are below!

 

         Reading and seeing David's, and this time, Giles', poetry books is always a joy. I'm happy to share this one with you, hoping you find time to get the book and enjoy every page and poem yourself. 

NF Picture Books Reveal the Night - Blog Tour & Giveaway

   Visit Alyson Beecher on Wednesdays for Non-Fiction Picture Books at Kidlit Frenzy -- hashtag #nfpb2020! Thanks to her hosting and sharing and those who add their posts, you can discover and celebrate terrific nonfiction picture books! 

      

                  I'm on a blog tour today, excited to share a new book of poetry written by David L. Harrison, illustrated by Stephanie Laberis that is out February 25th. It's After Dark, poems about nocturnal animals. And, you have a chance to win a copy of this book!

           Vincent Van Gogh said, "I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day."  For this book, David has written twenty-two poems about animals who live and ensure their survival in the night and Stephanie Laberis shows their unique hues and markings in her own "richly colored" illustrations. When you read and see examples below, I imagine you will say that Van Gogh is right.

            Sometimes, I sit outside (longer in summer) to see if I can be still enough to spot a creature moving nearby, to hear an animal's cry. Most often I see a rabbit hopping, stopping for nibbles. Sometimes I hear owls, and one very surprising time, I saw a coyote walking down the street, readying itself for night work. Here is one view from my porch. We humans can't see much, but many animals can and need to.

        I don't fool myself, however. I know that other creatures are out there, living their night lives, just as David shows us through his poems, as Stephanie has illustrated those words. In this book, they've offered a peek at the magic "After Dark". As I read the poems, I imagine sharing them with students, excited that David cleverly includes so much of each animal's behavior in his words, including clues in the titles. For example, the very first one, "The Rehearsal" includes the behavior of grey wolf adults who hunt for food to feed young pups, keep them safe for now as they grow. I.E., they rehearse!

                   "For now, 

                     play tag,

                     pretend grr,

                     pounce ferociously

                     on your siblings."

Stephanie creates three scenes from the comprehensive poem with a double-page spread, a wolf howling at the moon, allowing the moon to light up the entire two pages; the wolf mom nursing her pups; and the pups themselves playing in the night. Here are those pups and the poem:

        This opening poem's delight sets the stage for more questions, this time about wolves, but also a wonder about what's next, what else can be discovered in the night? If only for a time, we can explore the night through David's and Stephanie's "night eyes"!

Poetry Friday - All For The Family

           
           Sally Murphy from way down under hosts today! Thanks, Sally, wishing you and everyone else a loving Valentine's Day!  In her welcoming post, Sally shared her "dental" version of terse verse. Be sure to see her versions. Here's mine.

A Terse Verse Valentine for Anyone in Love

Mush Crush

          Speaking of love, according to Pliny the Elder, "Home is where the heart is." Unless you're a black-tailed prairie dog, then it's underground. Or if you're a king cobra, it's in a pile of leaves. White storks find their hearts, uh, homes, on chimney tops. These animal homes and others can be found celebrated poetically in David L. Harrison's new poetry collection, A Place To Start A Family: Poems About Creatures Who Build, illustrated by Giles Laroche. 
          The diversity of poems that fill the pages parallel the diversity of animals written about, poems that will begin a journey of wonder about other animals' homes and construction prowess. There are four sections—building underground, on land, in the water, and in the air and a bonus poem at the end. Why? Because it is so unique a "home builder" that it doesn't fit in the earlier sections! 
           I recognized some of these animals, like the star-nosed mole that David describes in part: "I keep my babies/ safe and dry,/ but otherwise/ I don't deny--/I love it wet/and full of bugs, worms, beetles,/ grubs, and slugs."  And I know of the yellow garden spiders whose baby spiderlings hatch "the size of dust/sail away on gentle gust/to decorate another yard."