I know others have spoken of this new poetry written by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Rick Allen, and I, too, want to add my own words of praise for Winter Bees & Other Poems of the Cold.
There is delight in looking at Rick Allen's paintings, so filled with color and action that even the snowflakes seem to drift off the page. And the fox makes me shiver as it smells the vole underground.
The pictures in the book celebrate Joyce Sidman's poems, inviting others to gather, to share in the words of winter. Each one holds its own surprises of different structure and content. I love the moose: "I bask in the moon/as the coyotes croon/with my moose-mama close by my side." And those bees, "Deep in the winter hive,/we burn like a golden sun." My favorite line, with the chickadees: "The sun wheels high, the cardinal trills./We sip the drips of icicles."