Color Me a Rhyme: Nature Poems for Young People

by Jane Yolen, Jason Stemple (Photographer)

Overview

What colors do you see in nature - the green of a fern, the brown of a desert, the gray of a lifeless tree? Look closer. You'll find more than meets the eye. Is that a white flower, or a star that fell in the forest? Is that an orange sunset, or a piece of fruit that's ripe for eating? Is that a blue sky, or the slate on which a bird writes? In thirteen memorable poems, Jane Yolen takes you on a whimsical journey through Mother Nature's glorious landscape. Using Jason Stemple's dazzling photographs as a backdrop, Ms. Yolen paints her own vivid pictures that are both real and imagined.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781590781722
Publisher:	Highlights
Publication date:	09/03/2004
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	478,815
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 9.56(h) x 0.15(d)
Age Range:	4 - 6 Years

About the Author

Jane Yolen is the author of more than two hundred books for young readers and adults, including Dear Mother, Dear Daughter: Poems for Young People, which she co-authored with her daughter, Heidi E. Stemple. She lives in Hatfield, Massachusetts.

Jason Stemple, a free-lance photographer, provided the photographs for Horizons, Color Me a Rhyme, Once Upon Ice, Water Music, and Snow, Snow—all poetry books for young people written by his mother, Jane Yolen. He lives in Charleston, South Carolina.

Table of Contents

	A Note from the Author	7
	Green	8
	Gray	11
	Purple	12
	Orange	15
	White	16
	Pink: A Haiku	19
	Black	21
	Yellow: A Haiku	22
	Two Red Haiku	24
	Brown	27
	Blue	29
	Crayons: A Rainbow Poem	30

Editorial Reviews

Gr 5 Up-Thirteen poems, each a study of a different color found in nature, accompanied by gorgeous photographs, beautifully reproduced and artfully presented. Many of the selections are quite lovely: "A star fell from the sky one night/And landed in the forest, white/Against the green of leaf and vine." A few are less effective. A passage from "Gray," for example, lacks the focus and rhythm found in the more successful poems: "Gray clouds in the skies/Are graceful memories/ And gradual lies." Overall, though, the collection is thoughtful and technically accomplished. Don't let the picture-book format fool you; the entries will probably be most appreciated by middle and high school students. The central image for each poem is crystal clear, often set against a background photo or montage that fades into mist with an elusive quality. There's a playful yet elegant mood in the way the words and pictures merge on many of the pages. This is a visual delight, allowing both author and photographer to share their obvious love for the world's natural beauty.-Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

The ubiquitous Yolen (Sherwood, p. 806, etc.) has previously collaborated with Stemple on three books of nature poems illustrated with photographs. In this latest joint effort, Stemple (Yolen's son) first takes photographs isolating or emphasizing one color in nature and Yolen then writes poems to coordinate with the photos. Eleven colors are included, with "Crayons: A Rainbow Poem" as the final poem, gracefully melding all the colors into one lyrical homage to the infinite variety of shades in the world of nature, including the wide variety of skin colors in people around us. Each two-page spread includes one poem by Yolen, a featured photo and a related background photo, a list of additional color words in large type integrated into the design, and a fragment of poetry about the particular color from another source, often a Mother Goose rhyme. Yolen has done an excellent job of creating poetry of all sorts, from a few spare and simple lines to some more complex poems, and she has included both rhyming and non-rhyming poems as well as several haiku. Language-arts teachers will welcome this book, as writing poems about colors is a common assignment in fourth through eighth grades, and in an author's note, Yolen encourages young people to try writing their own color poems using the color word lists and photographs. The standard book of children's poetry about colors, Hailstones and Halibut Bones, by Mary O'Neill (1961, 1989), is for a slightly younger audience and doesn't have the advantage of the gorgeous photographs in this book that show nature's true colors in all their glory. A multicolored gem for the poetry shelves in most school and public libraries. (author's note)(Poetry.9-13) Abella, Alex FINAL ACTS Simon & Schuster (302 pp.) Dec. 2000

Kirkus Reviews

Read More