POETRY

RED SINGS FROM TREETOPS:

               A year in colors

               written by Joyce Sidman
        illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski
     Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
                 Boston, Massachusetts
                              2009

SUMMARY

Joyce Sidman wrote poems focused on the four seasons of the year, using colors to draw on the emotions of the reader.  Using the five senses, Sidman brings the readers attention to the little details of every season, the smell and taste and sounds of nature as the seasons change.  A Royal figure (depicted by the crown) moves through each season, experiencing nature at its finest.  “Yellow...smells like butter, tastes like salt” and “Brown rustles and whispers underfoot” are examples of how Sidman uses the senses to keep the reader interested. 

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

The descriptions of the seasons are full of figurative language; examples of metaphors and personification create vivid images for the reader.  Although the poems have a rhythmic quality when read aloud, only a few contain actual rhyming lines.  The illustrations by Zagarenski provide an additional visual interpretation of the seasonal poems, helping readers “see” the seasons from different perspectives as the seasons change.

Although Red Sings from Treetops: a year in colors appears to be a poetry collection, it reads more like a story written as a poem.  The seasons each have a subtitle, but the poems focus on how the colors relate to each particular season.

REVIEW EXCERPTS

New York Times Book Review: "It's wonderfully strange to read of colors with sounds, smells and tastes."

Kirkus Reviews: "A charming inspiration to notice colors and correlate emotions"
Horn Book: "Sustaining the playfulness of the text and its sense of awe, mystery, and beauty, the illustrations contribute gracefully to the celebration."

Booklist: "As the title implies, the colors that surprise on every page, do sing."

CONNECTIONS

This would be a great book for choral reading, giving each child a differnt color from a different season.

After reading Red Sings from Treetops: a year in colors, students could use watercolors to create pictures of the seasons.  They can also write their own seasonal poetry, using felt-tip markers to copy them over the watercolor pictures.

AWARDS

2010 Caldecott Honor Award
2010 Claudia Lewis Poetry Award
2010 Minnesota Book Award
2009 Cybils Poetry Award
2009 Horn Book Fanfare
2009 Bulletin Blue Ribbon
2009 Booklist The Best of Editors’ Choice
2010 CCBC Choices Recommendation
New York Public Library's "100 Titles for Reading and Sharing"
ABC "Indie" Best Book
Junior Library Guild Selection



Sidman, J., & Zagarenski, P. (2009). Red sings from treetops: A year in colors. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children. ISBN-13: 978-0-547-01494-4