Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems by Joyce Sidman

If I have any objection with the book it is the mildest wish that perhaps maybe there could have been a brief explanation of the types of poems found in the story. She could have just kept her poems within the same ABAB rhyme scheme and no one would have given it a second thought. Ever confusing the issue, Sidman never plays it safe. Hearing the kids say lines like, “a golden sickle poised over / your soft, helpless heart” or “seeking, as they do, that final grip”, is something I look forward to. My favorite poem out of the bunch is, “An Apology To My Prey”, which contains such lines as “And my wings: I regret their slotted tips / that allow such explosive thrust / their span that gathers wind / effortlessly, and of course their / deadly, folding dive.” Sometimes when I meet with the homeschooler bookgroup that I run, I do a poetry unit with them for kicks. At the end kids will also find a Glossary of those terms that might have escaped their comprehension earlier in the book. For example, you might read that, “We tumble / we twitter / we dip / float / and flitter”, but when you turn the page you’ll find information telling you how goldfinches (the answer) are “extremely social birds, flocking together not only during migration but also all year long.” Some poems are funny, some are mysterious, and most leave you ah-hankerin’ for more. Two pages of poetry showing a hint of the thing being described lead into two more pages of factual information. Each poem describes a creature, though it’s up to the reader to guess that animal/plant/insect’s identity. Sixteen poems describe the multitude of meadow denizens that stake a claim in that particular kind of land. Not for the faint of heart, to say the least. Sidman weaves the two together so seamlessly that the reader is left completely unaware of the fact that this poetry book is (gasp, shudder) TEACHING them something. Taking the purportedly incompatible notions of science and verse, Ms. Now she’s followed up that hit with yet another. Her acquisition of a much coveted Caldecott Honor for, “Songs of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems”, may have struck some as out of left field, but for anyone familiar with her work there could be no surprise. It really takes something with a bit of punch to wake me out of my anti-poetic malaise, and that something (more often than not) is Ms. If something rhymes that’s cool, but I’m a lackadaisical poetry lover at best. Poems seem nice enough, but they very rarely wow me. I can’t really consider myself to be any kind of expert on the form, mind you. Prelutsky concedes the throne, I would like to nominate one Ms. I don’t mean to jump the gun here, but if we happen to be in need of a future Children’s Poet Laureate once Mr.

Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Beth Krommes.

Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems by Joyce Sidman