Seven Skies All at Once

by Ted Kooser, Matt Myers (Illustrator)

Overview

"Kooser’s picturesque poetry vividly shapes his living sky metaphors. . . A lofty concept and radiant illustrations will leave readers on cloud nine." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

The skies are hanging their freshly washed—and sweepingly illustrated—clouds out to dry in Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Ted Kooser’s celestial ode to an approaching rainstorm.

One sky unpins damp sheets of cirrus. Another wads cirrocumulus into a basket woven of sunbeams. Still others carry away armloads of altocumulus and drag moth-eaten gray blankets of stratus past. At last, a colossal cumulonimbus sweeps in, squeezing out the light to herald . . . rain! What emerges is a sky like a great green laundry basket with a rainbow for a handle. Full of wit and brilliant linguistic surprises, this poetic romp by former United States Poet Laureate Ted Kooser is as playfully theatrical as it is evocative. Matt Myers’s dynamic artwork stages the weather with aplomb, capturing the distinct mood of each show-stopping sky and crafting a meteorological drama of epic proportions. Like a good, rousing rainstorm, Seven Skies All at Once calls eloquently on our senses, inviting us to pause and reflect on the ever-changing wonders all around.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536229004
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	07/08/2025
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	10.06(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.35(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Ted Kooser was the US Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006 and won a Pulitzer Prize for his book of poems Delights & Shadows. He is the coauthor, with Connie Wanek, of Marshmallow Clouds: Two Poets at Play among Figures of Speech, illustrated by Richard Jones, which won a Cybils Award for poetry. Ted Kooser’s picture books include Bag in the Wind and The Bell in the Bridge, both illustrated by Barry Root; House Held Up by Trees, a New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Children’s Book of the Year, illustrated by Jon Klassen; and Mr. Posey’s New Glasses, an International Literacy Association Children’s Choice, illustrated by Daniel Duncan. Ted Kooser lives in Garland, Nebraska.

Matt Myers is the illustrator of the Infamous Ratsos chapter book series by Kara LaReau as well as the picture books Lily Leads the Way by Margi Preus, E-I-E-I-O: How Old MacDonald Got His Farm (with a Little Help from a Hen) by Judy Sierra, and Hazel the Handful by Jamie Michalak. Matt Myers lives in North Carolina.

Hometown:

Garland, Nebraska

Date of Birth:

1939

Place of Birth:

Ames, Iowa

Education:

B.S., Iowa State University, 1962; M.A., University of Nebraska, 1968

Editorial Reviews

Kooser’s picturesque poetry vividly shapes his living sky metaphors. . . Myers’ skyscapes of brilliantly colored oils on wood are both spectacular and scientifically accurate. His clever use of reflections, the way he artfully plays with the book’s gutter, and the almost tactile paint striations create spreads that are, well, heavenly. A lofty concept and radiant illustrations will leave readers on cloud nine.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Kooser’s lush, lyrical language, paired with Myers’ soft, wispy textures of oil paint on wooden panels, invites readers to slow down and marvel at the magnificent shift in cloudscapes and the surprises they bring before and after a storm. . . .Ultimately, this picture book vividly expresses how the sky, with clouds in all shapes and forms, connects us all together no matter how far apart we may be.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)

Dramatic visual storytelling incorporates layers of power and feeling throughout a work that neatly, playfully illuminates cloud forms and their scientific descriptors.
—Publishers Weekly

In a fresh and breezy addition to the shelf of rainstorm-themed picture books, clouds scurry across darkening skies and the wind rises. . . . A meteorological masterpiece, both playful and adeptly crafted.
—Booklist

While the skies play the lead in the narrative, the art quietly tells the story of an emerging friendship between two children in the neighboring buildings. . . . This multilayered visual treat offers much to think and talk about, from cityscapes to the science of the skies to new friends.
—The Horn Book

From the Publisher

★ 2025-04-19
A lightly personified series of skies puts out its cloudy laundry to dry while two human neighbors bond over the same task.

Permeated with dense imagery and atmospheric art, Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Kooser’s tale establishes that the skies have “hung out their freshly washed clouds” so that they might “smell like air.” But soon the skies have “hurriedly wadded up [the] socks, T-shirts and underpants of cirrocumulus” into a “basket woven of sunbeams” to outrun the seventh sky, a “moth-eaten, dirty gray woolen blanket of stratus.” A thunderstorm begins, gloriously unfurling on full-bleed double-page spreads. Kooser’s picturesque poetry vividly shapes his living sky metaphors, whether they be billowing descriptions of “big muscly arms tattooed all over with all kinds of birds” or ominous portrayals of cumulonimbus clouds “squeezing the light out.” Under those same dynamic skies, a pair of brown-skinned children hang laundry atop a pair of adjacent brick buildings. Their burgeoning friendship, told entirely visually through tentative waves and the clothes-pinned notes they exchange, is as enchanting as the breathtaking post-storm rainbow connecting them. Myers’ skyscapes of brilliantly colored oils on wood are both spectacular and scientifically accurate. His clever use of reflections, the way he artfully plays with the book’s gutter, and the almost tactile paint striations create spreads that are, well, heavenly.

A lofty concept and radiant illustrations will leave readers on cloud nine.(Picture book. 4-10)

Kirkus Reviews