Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow

by Joyce Sidman, Beth Krommes (Illustrator)

Overview

Discover the hidden world of the meadow in this unique combination of poetry riddles and science wisdom. Beginning with the rising sun and ending with twilight, this book takes us on a tour through the fields, encouraging us to watch for a nest of rabbits, a foamy spittlebug, a leaping grasshopper, bright milkweed, a quick fox, and a cruising hawk.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780618563135
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/15/2006
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	521,003
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 10.50(h) x 0.38(d)
Lexile:	1020L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

The Newbery Honor winner and Sibert Medalist Joyce Sidman is today's foremost nature poet for children.  Accolades for her books include two Caldecott Honors, a Lee Bennet Hopkins Award, winner of the Claudia Lews Award, and many stars and best of lists.  For her award-winning body of work, she won the Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. She lives in Wayzata, Minnesota. Visit www.joycesidman.com

 

 

Beth Krommes is the Caldecott Winning illustrator of The House in the Night  and other beautifully illustrated, much-acclaimed picture books like Swirl by Swirl, and  Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow. She lives in Peterborough, NH. Visit her online at www.bethkrommes.com.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Combining striking illustrations, evocative poems that do double duty as riddles and lucid prose commentary, this venture into the natural world stands out for both its beauty and its unusual approach." Kirkus Reviews, Starred

Editorial Reviews

"Combining striking illustrations, evocative poems that do double duty as riddles and lucid prose commentary, this venture into the natural world stands out for both its beauty and its unusual approach." Kirkus Reviews, Starred —

From the Publisher

K-Gr 5-As in Song of the Water Boatman (Houghton, 2005), Sidman applies her flair with poetry to explore the interactions of creatures and plants in a particular environment. Here, she employs varied poetic forms with simple explanations for a pleasing introduction to meadow ecology. The poems are posed as riddles in facing pairs: "We are the ghosts/of those/who have come before/The gray ones/Leaping/Gone/ What are we?" The spread following each set answers the questions and describes briefly an aspect of each animal's physiology or behavior. Visual clues complement the poetic suggestions in striking scratchboard scenes that are saturated with color. The busy, patterned views provide readers with much to see in this meadow, including magnified views of the insect denizens. They also incorporate ample white space for the text, nicely highlighting the visual qualities of much of the poetry. Sidman concludes with a brief explanation of how meadows change over time and eventually become forests through the process of succession. This term is defined again in the glossary, which also includes one poetry form, the pantoum. This book is a handsome and versatile compendium, melding art, poetry, and natural history.-Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Combining striking illustrations, evocative poems that do double duty as riddles and lucid prose commentary, this venture into the natural world stands out for both its beauty and its unusual approach. Young naturalists will find plenty to pore over in Krommes's ground-level scenes, rendered in strong-lined color scratchboard and featuring accurately observed wildflowers, insects and other life against stylized backdrops. In paired poems, Sidman finds subtle relationships in each setting: between morning dew and warm sun; fox and rabbits; deer and patient trees; the internal plumbing of a plant and the spittlebug that taps it to create a protective barricade. "Beautiful bubbles, / bubbles of pearl, / all in a clustery, bubbly swirl / Bubbles I blow / from my own bubble-spout / (I'll never / I'll never / I'll never come out!)." Except for a visual clue, the subjects of each poem-pair are left for readers to guess at, until a page turn reveals concise, specific explanations and details. A top-drawer blend of art and science. (glossary) (Picture book/poetry/nonfiction. 8-10)

Kirkus Reviews