I’ve been waiting to get my hands on this poetry compendium:
Sing a Song of Seasons: A Nature Poem for Each Day of the Year, selected by Fiona Waters, illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon
published in 2018 by Nosy Crow/Candlewick
And oooh! it’s a beauty!!
First of all, it’s no featherweight! I was not prepared for what a substantial tome it is! I mean — you will get a biceps workout just hoisting it around. Use it for a flower press when you’re not reading it. Its hefty trim size encompasses over 300 pages of glossy, heavyweight pages.
Crack it open and you are in for a visual treat as rich as the poetry itself. Every page is dominated by illustration. Vivid, contemporary, joyful images parade through the volume, with a gorgeous palette transitioning from season to season. Here are silvery moons shining on wintery snowscapes, jelly-bean-colored kites spangling a spring sky, dragonflies and hermit crabs, fern groves and pumpkin patches, sunshine and fog, hedgehogs and purple thistles, all in rich color and bold shapes and lines.
The poetry selections are delightful. I love that every piece in this volume is nature-themed. I think you just cannot ever drink too much of the loveliness of nature poetry. These are short poems from a gamut of poets and eras, a number of which my children memorized when they were small. Classic poetry from Stevenson, Rossetti, Frost; poems from long-favorites like Aileen Fisher, James Reeves, and Rachel Field. Mainly British and American, with a smattering of poems in translation.
There’s one for every day of the year. And of course, you don’t have to start this year-long feast on January 1! You can begin any time. You could get a copy of this marvel this week, and begin a refreshing habit of reading together, or just for yourself, a poem to begin the day.
Ages 3 through adult. It would make a smart birthday gift for young and very old, don’t you think?
orange marmalade 
Love this review Jill — this book is indeed gorgeous and delightful! I’ve been doing a poem-a-day practice the past two years with other anthologies and have just started my third year with this book — (well, I’ll admit I keep up better at some times of year than others, but this book is proving easy to remember — and look forward to — daily!)
I’m so impressed with that poetry practice, Christine. Inspiring! It is amazing how much wonder and beauty and freshness can be squoze into just a few lines of well-crafted poetry. Enough to grace the day.
It’s a work in progress! But one I think worth continuing to keep attempting each year, even when I sometimes forget for a week…or a month! I think the two key for me is finding a collection I REALLY love — and this one is definitely fitting the bill! — and to keep the volume in a handy, visible place — otherwise, it’s out of sight, out of mind and I’ll DEFINITELY forget 🙂
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