The Cuckoo's Haiku

The Cuckoo's Haiku and other Birding Poems
by Michael J. Rosen; illus by Stan Fellows
64 pages; ages 5 and up
Candlewick Press, 2009

Themes: animals, nature, poetry 

wild turkeys' snow tracks

their arrows point us one way

they go the other 

This book is better than a bird guide! It's a haiku field notebook in which Michael Rosen captures the essential characteristics of twenty-four common North American birds. His spare observations are complemented by the gorgeous watercolor illustrations by Stan Fellows - who details everything from field markings to habitat.

What I love about this book: I like the way it is structured - by the seasons. It opens with spring, and the Eastern Bluebird.

on a staff of wires

blue notes inked from April skies

truly, springs first song

In addition to haiku, Rosen includes field notes: the chestnut throat and breast; the males are darker and brighter blue; that bluebirds are thrushes, related to robins. Fellows paints them perched on electrical wires like notes on a staff which, if I could read music, I could play on my recorder. What tune has he hidden in this illustration?

a summer spread, featuring the Pileated Woodpecker and insect prey

I like the details in the artwork - from showing the insects that the woodpeckers seek to wing bars, crests, and feather details. Each spread becomes a field trip into the world of that bird. At the back of the book, Rosen includes five pages of notes about the birds he features: their mating behavior, food preferences, flight and other things that curious bird-watchers will want to know. 

Beyond the book: Write some bird haiku of your own. Spend time watching the birds at your feeder, or perched on a clothesline, or sipping water from a puddle in the parking lot at the grocery store. Start by drawing or jotting notes on the things you notice about this bird: feathers, crest, color of its beak or feet, whether it has a chin strap, eyebrows or wing bars. What is it doing? Where is it? What is the season and the weather? 

Check out more haiku activities here. And head over to Archimedes Notebook today to check out a brand-new book about feathers and do some hands-on science activities. Drop by STEM Friday to see what other science books and resources bloggers are sharing. 

Today's review is part of PPBF (perfect picture book Friday), an event in which bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's site. She keeps an ever-growing list of Perfect Picture Books.

On Monday we'll fly over to join the Nonfiction Monday round-up, where you'll find all kinds of great nonfiction for children and teens.  Review copy borrowed from a library.

Famous Last Words

Famous Last Words
by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski
288 pages; ages 12 - 18
Henry Holt & Co, 2013

Sixteen-year-old Samantha D'Angelo has a "dead-end" job - she's spending her summer internship writing obituaries at the local newspaper. She could be swimming, or hanging out at the beach with her friends. Instead, she interviews next-of-kin and close friends of the deceased, hoping that someone (perhaps the editor) will notice her vivid prose.

Until she starts investigating the mayor and possible corruption. What's up with the coffee shop that never seems to have any customers?And how can she get Tony, one of the feature writers and "sexiest man alive" to notice her?

This is a fun, breezy romantic comedy that includes: stolen ideas, garage bands, and way too many coffee runs. A great book for the kid with journalistic aspirations who wants to know what life at a  small newspaper office is like. And the chapter titles are pretty fun... they all relate to the newspaper biz in some way.

 Today is Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday - and you'll find more good middle-grade and YA literature over at Shannon Messenger's blog. Review copy provided by publisher.

A Single Pebble

A Single Pebble
by Bonnie Christensen
40 pages; ages 3-7
Roaring Brook Press, 2013

Themes: adventure, diversity

It's 850 AD, and Mei wants to travel with her father along the Silk Road. She wants to meet the monks and pirates and travelers that her father tells stories of. But it's her job to stay home and take care of the silkworms.

So Mei gives her father a jade pebble. "A gift for a child at the end of the road," she says. "But I don't travel to the end of the road," says her father. Still, he carries it with him, passing it on to other travelers who pass it on to others until it eventually reaches a child at the end of the road.

What I Like about this book: the way it's structured around the seasons; the different kinds of people traveling the road; the pirates; the box full of treasures; the maps and notes and multi-sensory gifts that accumulate over the course of the story. Also the turtle swimming in the river and the illustrations. This book is a journey you can take over and over again - and see something new on the road each time you read the story.

Beyond the book: Imagine sending an object on a journey. Choose something you would send to another child. Now make a map of the journey it could take. If you want an "old" map, cut open a brown paper bag to draw on, and illustrate it with dragons and other imaginary beasts.

Listen to music from the Silk Road. You can sample some music and rhythms at the Smithsonian Folkways webpage. Try beating out some of the rhythms on a drum, or by clapping your hands. Try humming along with some of they tunes - they sure do use a different musical scale, don't they?

What did the Silk Road smell like? Find some cinnamon and nutmeg in your kitchen spice cupboard and smell them. Use some spices in your oatmeal or hot cocoa.

Visit the Asian Art collection at a museum near you - and pay particular attention to works of art from 500 - 900s. That's the sort of art that may have been traded along the Silk Road.

Today's review is part of PPBF (perfect picture book Friday), an event in which bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's site. She keeps an ever-growing list of Perfect Picture Books. Review copy provided by publisher