Forest Has A Song

VanDerwater, Amy Ludwig.  2013. Forest Has A Song.  Ill. by Robbin Gourley. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Pub. Co.  ISBN 978-0-547-68099-6

(Image obtained from amazon.com)

Summary

Forest Has A Song is an anthology picture book which follows a girls and her dog through a forest adventure.  This adventure is told through 26 poems.  The intended audience for Forest Has a Song is grades 1-4. 

Quality and Appeal

The poetry found page by page in Forest Has A Song combines numerous poetic devices such as rhyming, rhythm, onomatopoeia, alliteration, and strong imagery while exploring a wide range of poetic types such as free verse and haiku. 

VanDerwater manages to dictate the beauty in the natural nuances while Gourley paints illustrations that consume the tone and mood.   Through this combination, readers are led through a true sensory experience --- readers feel the forest, hear the sounds, smell the smells, and leave feeling refreshed.  Beautiful, too, is the ability to encourage the target audience to get out of the house, away from technology, to experience nature and it’s playground. 

Spotlight Poem

April Waking

Ferny frondy fiddleheads

unfurl curls from dirty beds.

Stretching stents they sweetly sing

greenest greetings sent to Spring.

This poem could be used to introduce the seasons.  Students can be invited to write a poem about something they feel is characteristic of each season. 

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