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K-Gr 5 As in "Song of the Water Boatman" (Houghton, 2005), Sidman applies her flair with poetry to explore the interactions of creatures and plants in a particular environment. Here, she employs varied poetic forms with simple explanations for a pleasing introduction to meadow ecology. The poems are posed as riddles in facing pairs: We are the ghosts/of those/who have come before/The gray ones/Leaping/Gone/ "What are we?" The sp...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

The author of Song of the Water Boatman (rev. 5/05) takes a similar approach to a wild meadow. Eight pairs of "poetry riddles" present such related elements as the spittlebug ("Beautiful bubbles / bubbles of spume / guard me and hide me / in my bubble-room...What am I?") and the xylem sap it sucks from its host plant. A spread giving answers to the riddles and adding specific details about, say, "dew and grasshopper" or "goldfinch and hawk" follows each pair of poems. Sidman goes beyond diurnal and seasonal changes to...Log In or Sign Up to Read More