Overview
Twenty–nine poems about spring are illustrated with Douglas Florian's distinctive and buoyant watercolours and extol the many virtues of the season–from those muddy puddles and emerging bulbs to rain showers and rainbows and that first day without mittens. Concrete poems, humour, ingenious wordplay, and audience appeal make this a consummate companion to the acclaimed poet's first three seasonal collections.
Synopsis
Twenty–nine poems about spring are illustrated with Douglas Florian's distinctive and buoyant watercolours and extol the many virtues of the season–from those muddy puddles and emerging bulbs to rain showers and rainbows and that first day without mittens. Concrete poems, humour, ingenious wordplay, and audience appeal make this a consummate companion to the acclaimed poet's first three seasonal collections.
Publishers Weekly
Completing his cycle of seasonally-linked poems (Winter Eyes; Summersaults; Autumnblings), Douglas Florian presents Handsprings, suitably mud-spattered and unpredictable. He runs the gamut from "What I Love About Spring" ("Caterpillars creep,/ Peepers peep") to "What I Hate About Spring" ("Bumblebees/ Skinned knees"), including such defining characteristics as "The March Wind" ("The March wind howls. The March wind growls"). With his neatly framed watercolors of buds and raindrops, this cheery collection brims with "silly daffodilly" reminders that winter doesn't last forever. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Completing his cycle of seasonally-linked poems (Winter Eyes; Summersaults; Autumnblings), Douglas Florian presents Handsprings, suitably mud-spattered and unpredictable. He runs the gamut from "What I Love About Spring" ("Caterpillars creep,/ Peepers peep") to "What I Hate About Spring" ("Bumblebees/ Skinned knees"), including such defining characteristics as "The March Wind" ("The March wind howls. The March wind growls"). With his neatly framed watercolors of buds and raindrops, this cheery collection brims with "silly daffodilly" reminders that winter doesn't last forever. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.Children's Literature
Just in time to welcome spring, Florian has completed his seasonal cycle of poems that already include Winter Eyes, Summersaults, and Autumblings. His verses are concise, frequently fun, and always filled with the love of and play with words begging to be read aloud. Here he celebrates colors, sounds, activities, and the feel of spring, including March winds and April Fool's. Sometimes the words march down or around the page; the letters of "Rain Reign" fall like showers. The watercolor and color pencil illustrations of varying sizes that accompany these innocent verses are also playful and full of youthful enthusiasm. No backgrounds are needed; no distracting details keep us from the direct appeal of a mouth tipped open to catch the dripping rain, or the jumping lift of a youngster as if from a coiled spring, or a grin so wide it needs three separate frames to contain it, or a daisy coming around a corner smiling at us, "Spring is one big daisy chain...Spring is silly daffodilly." And Florian helps us open our arms to it. 2006, Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins, and Ages 5 to 10.—Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz