Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors by Joyce Sidman.

 Sidman, Joyce, and Pamela Zagarenski. Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Book for Children, 2009. ISBN: 9780547014944

A Caldecott Honor book for 2010, Red Sings from Treetops is an attractive book of poetry that takes the reader through a delightful literary journey through the seasons and the colors identified during that time. Sidman uses alliteration along with vibrant adjectives to make her poems come to life. Joyce Sidman uses colors to explore each of the four seasons through imagery, metaphor, personification and a variety of other delightful techniques that beg for the poems to be shared and read out loud. A beautiful example of personification can be found in the poem Fall.

Fall

In FALL,

Green is tired,

Dusty,

Crisp around the edges.

Green sighs with relief:

I’ve ruled for so long.

Time for Brown to take over.

Brown,

fat and glossy,

rises in honking flocks.

Brown rustles and whispers underfoot.

Brown gleams in my hand:

A tiny round house,

dolloped with roof.

The vocabulary throughout each selection is challenging enough to maintain the interest of older readers yet playful enough to keep the younger students involved as well. Regardless, any age will find delight in this book.

This is the second time Sidman and illustrator Pamela Zagarenski have teamed together to develop magnificent works of art, either through the use of words or illustrations. Using the same style of artwork from their first collaboration This Is Just to Say (another wonderful example of two voices), Zagarenski uses mixed media paintings of collages, wood and computer illustrations to develop images fitting each poem. Crowns adorn the triangular shaped people as the reader sees them interacting with the poem on each page. A little white dog can be found on each page which gives the book a “Where’s Waldo?” type of appeal as small children clamber to be the first to spot the pooch.

When using this book in a lesson plan, I would make sure to show the cover to students up close and discuss the four trees pictured. I would ask students to describe the characteristics of the trees and how those descriptions describe the four seasons. I would want to spend some time on the art work as well, because it is just too beautiful to overlook!

After reading the book to students I would go back to the poem, Green Is New in Spring, reread it and have students share their ideas of personification.

Green Is New In Spring

Green is new

in spring. Shy.

Green pecks from buds,

trembles in the breeze.

Green floats through rain-dark trees,

and glows, mossy-soft, at my feet.

Green drips from tips of leaves

onto Pup’s nose.

In spring,

even the rain tastes Green.

Yellow slips goldfinches

their spring jackets.

Yellow shouts with light!

In spring,

Yellow and Purple hold hands.

They beam at each other

with their bright velvet faces.

First flowers,

first friends.

After reading and discussing the use of personification in this work I would ask students to share their thoughts on what colors they associate various items and tastes.

What color does cake taste like?

What color does coffee smell like?

What color is loud thunder?

What color does mad look like? Sad? Happy?

From those ideas I would group students to work on personification in a color poem of their choosing.