How fitting that Rylant should write poetry. It is the perfect genre for her craft. She is a master of description and this poem is no exception. Her use of language coupled with Mark Siegel's charcoal drawings is captivating. Phrases such as "In January the Stormy Moon shines in midst, in ice, on a wild wolf's back. Find it and find your way home" almost hypnotize you with their beauty of description. The poem is about the Native American tradition of naming the full moons throughout the year. This is a wonderful poem to use with children. Most children find the night and the moon mysterious if not a bit forboading. This poem is about a subject that is familar to children, the language creates imagery brilliantly captured by Siegel's illustrations. Additionally, as an extension children could mimic this poem by giving their own names to the moon or perhaps to the sun.
The cover is a picture of the long night moon that continues onto the back cover. In the hard cover edition the end papers encompass two pages of a continuous scene of a night sky but no moon. Each page within the book contains a two page illustration of a dream like night with all the background hazy and the moon distinct. Different colored cursive writing was used for the text.
This book is a work of art.
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1 comment:
I really liked your description of the book. It truly is a work of art! I'm glad you mentioned some ways that you could use this book with young children. They love poetry, so this would be a great way to bring poetry into the classroom and tie it into other curricula as well.
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