PPBF: Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night

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Today's Perfect Picture Book Friday pick helps celebrate National Poetry Month.

Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night
Written by Joyce Sidman
Illustrated by Rick Allen
Houghton Mifflin, 2010
Poetry and Non-Fiction, grades 3-6
word count 2604

Themes:
Poetry, Nature, Animals


Opening:

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.

To you who make the forest sing,
who dip and dodge on silent wing,
who flutter, hover, clasp, and cling:
Welcome to the night!

Come feel the cool and shadowed breeze,
come smell your way among the trees,
come touch rough bark and leathered leaves:
Welcome to the night.

The night's a sea of dappled dark,
the night's a feast of sound and spark,
the night's a wild enchanted park.
Welcome to the night!


Synopsis:
        Dark Emperor & Other Poems is a beautiful blend of poetry and non-fiction over the backdrop of a forest at night. Each left-hand page has a poem. Some about the night itself. Most are about animals which roam the night: raccoon, snail, cricket, baby porcupette. The right-hand page has a description of the animal and its habits. Half poetry, half nature guide, this lyrical book made me feel as if I were in the woods at night, everything stirring around me. No wonder it won a Newbery Honor.
       Rick Allen's superb relief prints illustrate the poems in stunning detail. Though the prints are beautiful in themselves, they also act as a perfect compliment to the text.


What I Love:
I like poetry. This book makes me LOVE poetry. This book makes me love non-fiction picture books.
It begins with a wordless double-page spread which works almost like an endpaper. The illustration shows an owl swooping out of the forest at dusk. Rick injects a bit of whimsy too as an orange eft makes his way across each page. My favorite poem is Oak After Dark - just lovely.
After the last poem, the hauntingly beautiful  Moon's Lament, this book closes as it opened, with a double spread of the forest. This time the illustration shows the breaking dawn. The whole forest, the whole night, captured between the covers of a picture book.

Bonus:

1.The author has an available reader's guide.
2. You can find an interview with Joyce on Seven Impossible Things.
3. You can purchase prints from Kenspeckle Letterpress.

From DisneyBaby.com

4. There's an interesting peek into the illustrator's process on Challenging the Bookworm..
5. Enchanted Learning has some educational materials on nocturnal animals.
6. Visit a zoo to see the animals up close, like San Diego, Philadelphia, or The National Zoo. If you can't be there in person, most zoos have informative websites.
7. NuggetsOfGold has posts basic diorama instructions which can be modified to depict nocturnal animals.

8. Oreo owl cupcakes are a delicious treat for storytime.
9. Here are some other Perfect Picture Books you might enjoy.

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Check out all the recommended titles for Perfect Picture Book Friday for April 4, 2014 available on Susanna Leonard Hill's excellent blog.