Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Nightby Joyce Sidman
illustrated by Rick Allen
Summary: A collection of poems that celebrate the wonder, mystery, and danger of the night and describes the many things that hide in the dark.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010.
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3 comments:
This is a lovely book. For children and adults. I've read it to my 20 month old and my five year old. They both enjoy it for different reasons. The hidden creatures make it fun! Adults will enjoy the art and facts about our night time friends along with the gentle prose.
I must remark on the description here about the "danger of the night". The only danger mentioned is poisonous mushrooms! This book speaks about the beauty of the night not about things that go bump in the night.
Thanks for your comments, Melanie. I agree that this book is appealing to a wide range of ages -- the illustrations and poems are quite lovely and the animal facts are interesting!
When I first read this book, I was struck by the colors of the endpapers, which are a deep grayish-blue at the beginning of the book and a warm shade of rosy-orange at the end, bringing to mind dusk and dawn.
This is by far my favorite picture book of 2010 - and I've seen a lot, I'm the Children's Buyer & Manager of a bookstore. The details and surprises in the illustrations allow you to read the pictures, and the excellent poetry that accompanies each illustration doesn't hurt.
The overall feeling of darkness and life that the book creates is incredible. I can't think of another book published this year that creates such a distinct ambiance.
2010 has been a great year for picture books - but even with such stiff competition, Dark Emperor still stands out as spectacular.
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