Saturday, June 23, 2012

Red Sings From Treetops: A Year in Colors by Joyce Sidman and Pamela Zagarenski


Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors

Sidman, Joyce, Joyce Sidman, and Pamela Zagarenski. Red Sings From Treetops: A Year in Colors. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2009. ISBN: 0547014945.

Annotation
A collection of poems describing different seasons with colors, sounds and smells.

My thoughts
This book is the winner of the 2010 Caldecott Award. This book is an interesting twist for a concept book. It combines a collection of poems with seasons and colors to produce a visual stunner.

The short  pieces of poetry are great attention getters and would be great for a class lesson on how to write poetry and would be good for a read aloud setting. It would also be good for children learning the seasons and colors.

Focus on Artwork
Pamela Zagarenski's illustrations really add to the text. They really show and explain the text very well and are painted in bright vibrant colors. The entire book is beautifully illustrated with complicated layers, textures, and intense color combinations with a color palette that is based in earth tones and subtly changes to convey each season. This book teaches children about color and really does a great job at that through using the varying hues and also by including the written word typed in the given color throughout the book. In addition, Zagarenski creatively uses type. The lettering is seen both vertical and horizontal.

Curricular connections
Grade 4- Middle School
Elementary School: color poems
English/Humanities: Creative Writing: students can write their own color poems
Art: colors and nature

Literary devices
Use of Rhyme
“Green trills from trees, clings to Pup’s knees, covers all with leaves, leave, leaves!”

Use of simile
 “…each note dropping like a cherry into my ear.”

Quotes
And White?/White/Whispers,/Floats,/Clumps,/Traces its wet finger/on branches and stumps./White dazzles day/and turns night/inside out.

Where is Green in winter?/Green darkens, shrinks,/stiffens into needles./Green waits in the hearts of trees,/feeling/the earth/turn.

Reading level/ Interest Age
Grades 1-4; Ages 6 – 9

Reviews and Awards
2010 Caldecott Honor Book
2010 winner of the Claudia Lewis Poetry Award
Booklist, 2009. Horn Book, 2009. School Library Journal, 2009.
Winner of the Cybils Award
A Lee Bennett Hopkins Honor Book
A School Library Journal Best Book
New York Public Library’s 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing

Author website: www.joycesidman.com
Illustrator website: www.atthegallery.com/artists/zagarenski.html
Media: Mixed media paintings on wood and computer illustration
Genre: Poetry, juvenile picture book

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