Earth Verses and Water Rhymes - Hardcover

Grade 2-5--Those who loved Lewis's A Hippopotamustn't (Dial, 1990) won't be disappointed in his second book of poetry. More meditative in tone, the collection of 17 poems begins in the fall, moves through winter and spring, and ends up in Indian summer, a nicely sat isfying progression. The selections are short, and they deal with everyday sub jects such as snowflakes, foxes, light houses, the wind, grasshoppers, and cats. One can imagine parent and child cuddling up to read this book together at bedtime or just as easily picture a teacher using it in the classroom. Lewis knows when to let strong, supple words reveal their unadorned beauty: "Jun iper, hickory, walnut, fig/ Make a wish on a twisted twig . . . Sycamore, cin namon, buckeye, beech/ Earth's um brellas bloom out of reach." Other times he invokes unusual images with excellent effect. Sabuda's handcut lino leum prints, executed in soft, muted tones of gold, olive, blue, green, and tan, convey a contemplative mood. One can almost feel the delicious cool ness of a frog pond or sense the mys tery of a winter woods at midnight. The lack of margins seems just right: it's as though words and pictures take over and can't be contained. There's magic in these 32 pages; don't miss it.
-Ellen D. Warwick, Robbins Library, Arling ton, MA
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In this assortment of 17 verses, Lewis's crisply visual language is enticingly original, peppered with vivid metaphors. The red fox in the moonlight is "dipping / her paintbrush paws / into the drifts she loves." Summer "is a long yellow gown / Fitted to the fields and farms." Unlike the author's A Hippopotamusn't , which highlights his whimsy and humor, the poems here are clever and thoughtful. Although some of the rhymes are technically complicated, they are perfectly suited for children with a proclivity for wordplay and fun. The spring rain, having awakened worms and spanked frogs, shakes the petal hands of tulips and says "How do you dew?" Sabuda's ( Walden ; I Hear America Singing ) striking linoleum prints are more successful when not depicting people, but his panoramas of nature--moonlight on the ocean, an owl in the fog--convey the "honeycomb" days of July and the "dark December" of winter that Lewis so aptly describes. Ages 7-10.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.