Synopsis
The running of rivers, the wild geese returning, the bear cubs stepping out, and the peepers singing - this is the arrival of spring in the north country. Join all manner of north country animals as they respond in their own unique ways to the slow vanishing of the cold, dark winter. Reeve Lindbergh's verse captures the empowering voice of spring in language both poetic and precise, while Liz Sivertson's paintings are as spirited and free as the north itself. Together, poet and painter celebrate the wildness and beauty of a season that can never come too soon.
Publishers Weekly
In a fresh rush of rhyming couplets, the voice of spring calls northern creatures to life: "Wiggle out, swim about, says the voice to the trout./ Skim the silvery riverbanks, in and out"; "Strut out, tall moose, from your stand of spruce./ Walk around, feel the ground, let your bones get loose." Lindbergh's (The Midnight Farm) ebullient verse is a triumph song of spring's melting, sensory flush. And in first-time artist Sivertson's acrylic paintings, readers will float, swoop and exult along with the creatures: she gives the animals playful and unmistakable gestures that suggest by turns long-legged awkwardness, timid grace and soaring power. Her paintings are a sensory feast, setting the animals' often indistinct but expressive forms against backlit evergreens and grasses, or sometimes more abstract, energetically brushed, prismatic backgrounds. A glossary describing 14 animals is included. Ages 4-8. (Apr.)