Recent news, swell things that could make my head swell, if I were that sort of person, and other things to share:
The Cuckoo’s Haiku:
Kirkus Reviews STARRED REVIEW
and a BEST BOOK OF 2009!
For Michael J. Rosen, haiku and bird watching are “kindred arts: The subject of both is often a fleeting impression—a snatched glimpse.” The Cuckoo’s Haiku, a celebration of 24 common American birds, exalts the art of looking closely at the commonplace in order to see something wonderfully new. “Birds are so familiar in a way,” says Rosen, that I wanted to make them strange again.” By phrasing his observations in the terse, image-rich form of haiku, Rosen wants to “draw half of a circle in the air, hoping that a reader’s imagination will complete the other half.” Rosen’s avian observations are brought elegantly to life by the artwork of Stan Fellows. “We wanted The Cuckoo’s
Haiku to be a notebook of watercolors that a birder might be creating in the field—vibrant, accurate yet loose sketches, and handwritten notes about key features or curious observations,” he says. The resulting work invites readers to join Rosen in the practice of looking carefully. “To me, the idea is that practice makes. That’s all. It doesn’t make perfect, it just makes…makes things, makes you do things you otherwise might not, makes experiences richer, more beautiful and worth sharing.”
Publisher’s Weekly STARRED REVIEW
A rare gift for young and old alike, this exquisite book about birds combines delicate verses and stunning watercolors that celebrate the natural world. Designed as if it were a birder's notebook, the book provides an intriguing haiku for each bird, dazzling paintings of the species in their habitats, as well as notes about their behaviors and traits. The double-page spread about American goldfinches shows them perched on a thistle feeder, “above gold jonquils/ feeding finches stacked like coins/ April's alchemy.” (A handwritten note adds, “funny—their song is 'potato-chips, potato-chips.' ”) The poems are arranged by seasons, and Rosen's words conjure dramatic images—in winter the dark-eyed juncos are “phased like tilted moons/ half shadow, half reflection” while the blue jay is “December's bugler/ jay! jay! jay! your one carol.” Fellows revels in the iridescent sheen of a blackbird or a field of summer wildflowers as he accurately yet expressively varies the point of view, settings and design elements for each page turn. Text and images, like a well-rehearsed duet, balance and echo each other's beauty.
From the Washington Post’s review of
A Drive in the Country:
Michael Rosen has written so many terrific children's books you could go nuts trying to pick a favorite… Rosen doesn't do messy reality; he does glorious happiness…The kids and Shirley [basset hound] revel in the late-summery outdoors as Rosen revels in language: "Since no one's found this road but us, we comb the berm for buckeyes with their spiny shells . . . or Osage oranges huge and pimply as grapefruits," while Marc Burckhardt captures the idyll in scene after glowing, golden-lit scene. And you know, some days the world really does look like that.
