Poetrees

Product description Seeds are sprouting, roots are spreading, and branches are swaying in this tree-mendous poetry collection. From coconut palms and bristlecone pines to baobabs and banyans, Douglas Florian explores the arboreal world with his signature wit and whimsy. Featuring a dynamic vertical format that illustrates the incredible heights and shapes of the trees, this book illuminates the natural history of these majestic beings as well as their unique and quirky characteristics. Amazon.com Review This book is ripe with poetrees, They're grown to educate and please. You'll see a cedar. Oak tree too. Birch and banyan, Pine and yew. Palm and gum And willow tree, Plus more you'll love tree-mendously! Read Excerpts from Author Douglas Florian's Poetrees Giant Sequoias Ancient seers Of three thousand years. Heavenly high. Friends to the sky. Spongy thick bark. Large as an ark. Gargantuan girth. Anchored in earth. Growing by degrees To world's tallest trees. Never destroy a Giant sequoia. Monkey Tree Puzzle It's said that a monkey could climb Up this tree in the Quickest of time. But climbing back down Without cracking Its crown Is a puzzle so hard, It's a crime. From Booklist Starting with the book’s title and ending with a final glossatree, the wordplay in Florian’s latest poetry collection provides plenty of fun. Each of the 18 poems celebrates the wonder of trees, from the giant sequoia (the world’s tallest trees) and the Banyan (an acre in its canopy) to the bristlecone pine, one of the oldest trees on earth (alive for fifty cen-trees). Each poem is printed on a vertical double-page spread illustrated with mixed-media artwork in gouache, watercolor, colored pencil, rubber stamps, oil pastels, and collage on brown paper bags. The dramatic swirling visuals sometimes swamp the words, but the blurry images do leave room for kids to use their imaginations as they interpret the poems. The big pages are well suited for group sharing, as are the playful puns (Lovely leaves / Leave me in awe). The final fascinating notes on each tree, and on leaves, stems, and roots, spell out the call for conservation that is part of the poetry and pictures. Grades 3-6. --Hazel Rochman Review "Starting with the book’s title and ending with a final “glossatree,” the wordplay in Florian’s latest poetry collection provides plenty of fun...The final fascinating notes on each tree, and on leaves, stems, and roots, spell out the call for conservation that is part of the poetry and pictures. — Booklist "Trees recieve a witty and informative rhyming appreciation...the poems live up to his usual high standard...Readers and listeners will learn and laugh."-- Kirkus Reviews “Florian’s richly watercolored collages, accompanied by verse, evoke a whole forest of trees. Sometimes it takes just a handful of words. “From the acorn grows the tree - slowly, slowly,” he writes, as an oak fills a two-page spread, stained onto paper.”-- New York Times Book Review About the Author Douglas Florian is the creator of many acclaimed picture books including How to Draw a Dragon, UnBEElievables, Poetrees, and  Dinothesaurus. He lives with his family in New York.