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By Joyce Sidman
Illustrated by Rick Allen
Houghton Mifflin, 2010
$16.99, 4-8, 32 pages
An award-winning poet guides us through the "dappled dark" of the night woods to where the living things are in this beautiful, evocative book.
"To all of you who crawl and creep, / who buzz and chirp and hoot and peep, / who wake at dusk and throw off sleep: / Welcome to the night," Sidman writes in her opening poem.
Sidman's verses are exhilarating, as she embraces the feel of night, and its smells and sounds, while Allen's block prints envelop us in the dark beauty of things barely seen.
Richly textured and stunning to look at, Allen's engravings show only what the waning light or moonlight affords.
In one spread, the moon illuminates the filaments of a spider web as if dusted with glitter, and in another, the bold shadows of sunset divide trees between darkness and light.
Sidman, author of the Caldecott Honor-winning Song of the Water Boatman and Other Poems, describes the night woodlands as a "wild, enchanted park" where some of most humble creatures live.
Here you learn about the woodland snail, who slides up leaves "to their dewy tips" and spins morsels "into whorls of light," and the primrose moth whose wings open into delicate pink petals in the moonlight.
Every poem feels tenderly written. In one poem a mother porcupine and her baby "mew and coo a soft duet" as the baby nurses; in another, a bat tumbles to his tree after catching his last bug, grasping the bark to snuggle in.
At times Sidman shows drama unfolding. In her title poem, "Dark Emperor," she explores what it's like to be prey and you feel her compassion for this little creature.
Over the course of the poem, a mouse tries to scramble out of view of a great horned owl and is fully aware that the owl could snatch him up if it wanted to.
As the mouse makes his way through the forest litter, he sizes up the owl. High above him, the ow
1 Comments on Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night, last added: 10/25/2010
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Thanks for sharing about Dark Emperor. This is a great review, and I've enjoyed seeing all the reviews of the scary books you've done!