[Review + Author Chat + Giveaway] When Green Becomes Tomatoes by Julie Fogliano and Julie Morstad

April 1, 2016September 1, 2017 ~ jama ~ 74 Comments

march 20

from a snow-covered tree
one bird singing
each tweet poking
a tiny hole
through the edge of winter
and landing carefully
balancing gently
on the tip of spring

march 22

just like a tiny, blue hello
a crocus blooming
in the snow

I can’t think of a better way to kick off National Poetry Month and celebrate Spring than with these beautiful poems by Julie Fogliano, the first two in her brand new book, When Green Becomes Tomatoes: Poems for All Seasons (Roaring Brook Press, 2016), illustrated by Julie Morstad.

She pretty much had me at “each tweet poking/a tiny hole/through the edge of winter,” and I continued to swoon as I carefully made my way through the entire book, which features about a dozen enchanting poems for each season, presented as dated entries in a nature journal, beginning and ending with March 20, the Spring equinox.

These spare and lyrical free verse observations are told in an intimate, conversational voice, describing subtle and not-so-subtle seasonal changes with regard to wind, rain, earth, sky, and many green and colorful growing things. From a child’s perspective, small things can be everything, and if you stand or sit still long enough, wonder will reveal itself: flowers “lean and bend toward the light/wide open as if singing/their voices (silent but everywhere)/fill up the daytime/a song much more than purple/and beyond every red.”

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friday feast: emily dickinson’s poetry of flowers

March 21, 2014September 8, 2017 ~ jama ~ 76 Comments

“Earth is crammed with heaven.” ~ Emily Dickinson

*Please help yourself to Emily’s rice cakes and a cup of green tea.*

Hello Spring, is that really you? 🙂

Today we’re greeting the somewhat reluctant, much-awaited season of renewal, rebirth, and regrowth with a little help from esteemed poet Emily Dickinson.

I’m sure you know she was fond of sending friends and acquaintances fragrant bouquets with notes or verses tucked in them, sometimes with a gift of food.

What could be sweeter than homemade gingerbread or coconut cake, nasturtiums and peonies from her garden, and a heartfelt verse she’d penned just for you?

*from the New York Botanical Gardens Emily Dickinson Exhibit (2010)*

Though she may have eschewed personal contact with people outside the family, Emily was able to sustain longstanding friendships and express romantic inclinations on her own terms. She cultivated and excelled in all three of these pursuits — gardening, baking, writing — as a normal course of each day, all of them requiring practiced skill, time and devotion.

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an old bear to love

August 14, 2008November 22, 2017 ~ jama ~ 13 Comments

OLD BEAR by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow, 2008), ages 2-7, 32 pp.
Available: August 19, 2008

Look what’s coming out next week!

Another masterpiece by Kevin Henkes.

When I first saw the cover, I could feel the wonder. The bold outline, just the right shade of tawny cinnamon, the bear’s rounded face and snout, his warmth and gentle demeanor, and the title – drawn in letters with furry edges.

I knew I would love it before I even opened it.

Maybe it’s because, even after 30-something books, Kevin Henkes has never disappointed. He just keeps getting better. How is that possible?

Kevin Henkes in his Madison, Wisconsin, studio, by Joe Koshollek (photo source)

In this breathtakingly gorgeous book, it is snowing heavily, and Old Bear is fast asleep, dreaming of becoming a cub again outside in the world he loves. When we first see him, he’s all snug and cozy, inside an ink and watercolour illustration framed by thick, bold lines. His dream turns to spring, with a full-bleed double page spread in vivid pinks and lilacs. “The flowers were as big as trees. He took a nap in a giant pink crocus.” The little curled up ursine is so endearing!

Then he dreams of summer, wandering green hillsides: “the sun was a daisy and the leaves were butterflies.” In one of the most joyous, perfectly child-centric drawings I’ve ever seen, the cub is catching blueberries on his tongue, because they are raining from the clouds!

So magical!

Then it’s autumn, and “everything was yellow and orange and brown, even the birds and the fish and the water.” The cub is up a tree, while the world is teeming with the vibrancy of rust-colored fish and birds.

When it’s winter, the cub sits gazing at a world covered with snow and ice. It’s radiantly cool and brilliant, with a sky that is “blazing with stars of all colors.”

Finally, when Old Bear wakes up, he ventures out into a refreshing spring day, and it’s so beautiful that he has to make sure he’s not still dreaming.

Just as he did in A Good Day (Greenwillow, 2007), Henkes has created a deceptively simple storyline. The understated, lyrical language sets the stage for the dramatic double page spreads depicting each of the four seasons. Each page turn will surely prompt a Wow response, or at the very least, an excited, Oh!, followed by lots of sighing. It’s the perfect example of how the right combination of color and contrast can embody strong emotion.

What else did I like? The front cover of the book is autumn, the back is spring. The front endpapers are chestnut-colored autumn leaves, and the back endpapers are lavendar flowers. The title on the cover is embossed, and the typeface is remniscent of some of my favorite childhood books illustrated by Garth Williams. The words change color, too, with the seasons. Every detail is pitch perfect. But then, it’s Kevin Henkes.

Old Bear, which earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly, will be loved by children ages 2-7, and will lend itself nicely to classroom units about nature, colors, animals, and the four seasons. See the HarperCollins activity guide here.