Review by Booklist Review
Who would have / thought darkness / could be so cheerful? Quiet, stirring poems and big monotype illustrations celebrate the wonder of black and white--in the night sky, in the chalk on a blackboard, in the moonlit snow, and, best of all, in animals, including a cat, a cow, a raccoon, a crow, a Border collie, and a fly. Then there is the drama of driving into a tunnel during a rainstorm, where suddenly there is blackness and / brief relief. With tiny details and lots of white space, the clear, unframed prints have the texture and shading of charcoal and include details such as the hairs on a fly's leg and the past scratched messages embedded on a blackboard. The poem Dog-Eyed reminds readers that A canine's sight is / black and white, and on the opposite page is a close-up view of the Border collie's face with his soulful eyes. The small things are stark and beautiful. --Hazel Rochman Copyright 2007 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Both the lyrical poems and artful monotypes in this handsomely designed volume explore images in black and white. A dandelion's "head is filled with/ winged seeds-her fluffy/ cloud-white dreams held/ back like eager children." The family dog hears the "scented sound/ of thieving paws" belonging to a raccoon with "white around/ [his] bandit eyes." Each poem is etched like frost on a windowpane, the images both precise and evocative. While the topics focus on objects and people familiar to a young audience, the tone, voice and vocabulary of the poems may be better suited to an older audience. Nostalgic entries celebrate a shock of white hair in a mother's ebony hair or the inked footprints of a newborn, "unique to you that/ mark you mine/ ten rounded toes/ like stepping stones/ left and right/ a perfect pair/ adventure bound." Nonetheless, the poems and intriguing illustrations are startling: on a black page, the white in the poem "Comet" takes the physical shape of a comet falling from the sky, while on the opposite page the illustration elegantly captures the image of "a swirling smudge/ of luminescent white/ .../ as if some/ impish thumb/ had smeared/ a star/ before/ the night/ had dried." These poems and illustrations illuminate simple moments-"snow-white blossoms" of popcorn escaping from a pot, a black cat basking near white lace curtains-with remarkable sensitivity and insight. Ages 6-up. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-6-Seventeen elegant poems are illustrated with accomplished black-and-white monotypes. Some of the loosely gathered subjects include the way a dog sees; a blackboard with white chalk; the contents of a doctor's lab coat (a black stethoscope and "a sprig of pussy willow"); and a car ride through a tunnel. Print and poem are equally meshed in "The Cow": A Holstein who is "strong enough/to carry continents/upon her back" lends a replica of her black continent from her back to the facing page for the poem in white type. Several of the selections in black print appear on a white page but others are reversed, with a black background and white letters. The poems are filled with a subtle music through the gentle use of poetic devices-rhyme, consonance, assonance. The unique sensibility of this artist/poet offers a sophisticated, reserved collection that children will appreciate for its difference.-Teresa Pfeifer, Alfred Zanetti Montessori Magnet School, Springfield, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
From a ""swirling smudge"" of a comet to the faint outlines of long-ago writings on a classroom chalkboard, these seventeen poems beautifully capture the essence of their various subjects. The black-and-white monotype prints are elegant, and as Miller says in the poem ""The Tunnel,"" ""Who would have / thought darkness / could be so cheerful? (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Miller pairs lovely images with monotypes in different hues, including inky black and cool white. Sometimes the titular theme examines the colors directly, celebrating in "First Steps" a new baby's inked footprints and in the clever "Dog-eyed," both a canine's black-and-white eyesight and his Border Collie coat, which, "among his doggy friends / is just as grand as / Irish Setter red." Other poems tease out the theme more obliquely: "Dandelion Dreams" contrasts the plant's tenacious root with "her head . . . filled with / winged seeds--her fluffy cloud-white dreams. . . . " Short lines beautifully integrate assonance and near rhyme in unselfconscious verse that plumbs the natural world and occasionally reflects on a child's familial connections. Miller's often exquisite exploitation of the monotype medium (as in illustrations for "King Crow" and "Comet") falls short in pictures for "Dad's Closet" and "Almost Perfect," wherein a doctor's coat, stethoscope and buttoned shirt, flatly depicted, lack the lush nuance found elsewhere. Worthwhile overall, with glimmers of brilliance; an artist to watch. (note on illustrations) (Poetry. 6-12) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
