Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The team behind A Mirror to Nature again pairs striking, full-color photographs of birds with spirited poems in a full range of styles and forms. A haiku for a kingfisher speaks tenderly to the quirky, diminutive bird ("Hey, girl, fish lover,/ Sitting on the dead gray tree,/ Love the blue Mohawk"); another offering compares a marching group of oystercatchers to windup toys; and a poem for a "solitary wood duck" admires the bird's nobility ("We surrender,/ we surrender,/ we surrender to your beauty"). Stemple's intimate photos capture a great horned owl's gaze, a chickadee's downy plumage, and sandpipers silhouetted against a sunrise, while Yolen's solidly constructed verses show equal affection. Ages 9-11. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Horn Book Review
Each of fourteen spreads features a poem about a bird species, facts about the species, and a perfectly matched photograph expertly set against a complementary background, granting each creature a unique personality. The poems are varied and skillfully done, sometimes bending form and other times following it closely. A foreword by an ornithologist is included. (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Striking photographs of birds that might be seen in the eastern United States illustrate this new collection of 14 poems in varied forms. From bald eagle to marbled godwit, the range is wide. It includes familiar feeder birds like chickadees, birds of ponds and shores like wood ducks, hooded mergansers and sandpipers, as well as less-common birds like the great horned owl, rufous-sided towhee and cedar waxwings. Semple's splendid photographs show birds in the wildflying, perched in trees or on slender reeds, running along the sand and even bunched on a boardwalk. The colors are true, and the details sharp; careful focus and composition make the birds the center of attention. Yolen's poems comment on these birds' appearances and their curious actions. An eastern kingbird is "a ninja of the air," and "...oystercatchers, unafraid, / Continue on their stiff parade." The mockingbird's "Threesome Haiku" matches his triple repetition of the tune he mocks.Some of the poetry limps, making an easy point rather than enlarging the reader's understanding, but some is memorable. Perhaps most effective is the rhythmic "Terns Galore": "Turning terns are all returning / There upon the shore." Short sidebars add interesting, informative details about each species and Donald Kroodsma, a well-known ornithologist, has added a short foreword. This is a welcome companion toA Mirror to NatureandAn Egret's Day(both 2009). (Informational poetry. 8-11)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
