Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night [Hardcover]

Joyce Sidman (Author), Rick Allen (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 6, 2010 | Age Range: 6 - 9 years | Lexile Measure: 1020L (What's this?)

A 2011 Newbery Honor Book

 

Come feel the cool and shadowed breeze,
come smell your way among the trees,
come touch rough bark and leathered leaves:
Welcome to the night.

Welcome to the night, where mice stir and furry moths flutter. Where snails spiral into shells as orb spiders circle in silk. Where the roots of oak trees recover and repair from their time in the light. Where the porcupette eats delicacies—raspberry leaves!—and coos and sings.

Come out to the cool, night wood, and buzz and hoot and howl—but do beware of the great horned owl—for it’s wild and it’s windy way out in the woods!

This Newbery Honor-winning picture book combines beautifully written poetry with facts of the forest and elaborate illustrations to form a marvelously engaging collection.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 3-6–Sidman continues her explorations of natural history in this set of poems about nocturnal life in the forest. As in her other collections, each selection is set in an expansive spread that includes a factual discussion of the featured subject. The illustrations are bold, richly detailed linoleum prints colored in gouache. The 12 poems are led by a scene setting “Welcome to the Night” and go on to feature 9 different creatures and some mushrooms with a concluding lament by the moon as night fades into morning. Sidman adroitly applies varied poetic forms and rhyme schemes. The title's dark emperor, the great horned owl, lends its shape to the one concrete poem, and the closing lament is in the medieval style known as an ubi sunt. The poetry is reflective and at times philosophical. “Build a frame/and stick to it,/I always say./Life's a circle….Eat your triumphs,/eat your mistakes:/that way your belly/will always be full…,” advises the night spider. Other poems are playful and some just a bit confusing. The porcupine poem explains that the infant of this species is known as a porcupette; the repeated use of “baby porcupette” seems oddly redundant. The bookmaking is beautiful with the concept of night lending itself generously to poetry. It invites lingering enjoyment for nature and poetry fans, and, as with Sidman's earlier collections, it might be used with varied curriculums.Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston
© Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Like Sidman's Caldecott Honor Book, Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems (2005), this picture book combines lyrical poetry and compelling art with science concepts. Here, poems about the woods at night reveal exciting biology facts that are explained in long notes on each double-page spread. In a poem about crickets, lines describe “the raucous scrape / of wing against wing,” while a prose passage explains that the cricket's wing has a serrated “file,” which the cricket rubs against a hard “scraper” on its other wing to attract a mate, creating a sound called “stridulation” that can swell to deafening levels. The facts are further reinforced in the accompanying picture, which shows the small file on a cricket's wing. In an opening note, Allen explains his elaborate, linoleum-block printmaking technique, and each atmospheric image shows the creatures and the dense, dark forest with astonishing clarity. Looking closely at a picture of a snail, for example, readers will see the physical detail, described in an adjacent poem, in the small animals' moist, sluglike bodies, “riding on a cushion of slime.” The thrilling title poem captures the drama of predator and prey: a mouse in the undergrowth flees an owl's “hooked face and / hungry eye.” A final glossary concludes this excellent, cross-curricular title. Grades 3-6. --Hazel Rochman

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 6 - 9 years
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children; None edition (September 6, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0547152280
• ISBN-13: 978-0547152288
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 10.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #126,106 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #34 in Books > Children's Books > Science, Nature & How It Works > Nature > Forests & Trees
  • #79 in Books > Children's Books > Science, Nature & How It Works > Biology

More About the Author

Joyce Sidman is known for her fresh, inventive poetry for children. Her award-winning books include Dark Emperor (A Newbery Honor Book), Song of the Water Boatman and Red Sings from Treetops (both Caldecott Honor Books), Butterfly Eyes (Cybils Award), and This Is Just to Say (Claudia Lewis Poetry Award). A recent starred review in School Library Journal said, "Sidman's ear is keen, capturing many voices. Her skill as a poet accessible to young people is unmatched." Born in Connecticut, Joyce now lives in Minnesota. Visit her at www.joycesidman.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to the Night! (2011 Newbery Honor Book) October 5, 2010

By Mary Kate TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

When you decide to create an in-home library for your grandchildren, searching for the best books to add to it can become a great adventure - time consuming, yes, but also fun and rewarding. People start suggesting their own favorites, you find yourself making notes on booklists gleaned from dozens of sources and - most fun of all - you sometimes just sort of stumble across a book while looking for something else and it becomes a treasured addition to your collection. This book, Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night, falls into that last category. In this case, it was the owl on the cover that caught my eye - probably because I'd just recently seen the film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole. The owl was enough to make me take the book down from the shelf, but it was the wonderful content that had me putting Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night into my buy pile.

I loved this book on my first read through, captivated by the unexpected, but somehow perfect, mixture of poetry and science. Apparently, had I been familiar with author Joyce Sidman who has employed this combination in previous books such as Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow and Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems, this combination would not have surprised me. (Both of these earlier books now reside on my Wish List.)

In her latest book, Sidman welcomes us to the night, inviting us to learn about the creatures that inhabit it and to witness the changes to ordinary things after the sun has set.... Poems, composed in a variety of styles, introduce us to several night creatures - a moth, a snail and the Great Horned Owl depicted on the cover, among others. Alongside the poems are related facts told in accessible, but not simplistic or dumbed-down language. This is interesting stuff - the sort of facts kids and those reading to them will enjoy learning and will remember. I'd never heard the word porcupette (a baby porcupine) before, nor did I know that snails added a layer to their shell every night or exactly how the legs of crickets produced their chirps. Learning right along with my grandkids as I read to them added an extra layer of enjoyment to this book.

Rick Allen's detailed linoleum prints - a style I don't see with great regularity - complement verse and prose perfectly and a very helpful glossary is also included.

As my library for kids and young adults continues to grow, I hope I stumble across more treasures like this one. I'm excited about adding Sidman's earlier works to my collection - and to seeing what I'll learn from them.

Highly recommended. Read more ›

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A spectacular collection of nocturnal songs of plants and animals who love and inhabit the night world November 10, 2010

By Midwest Book Review

Format:Hardcover

"Dark Emperor and other Poems of the Night" is a spectacular collection of nocturnal songs of plants and animals who love and inhabit the night world. Each poem describes the habits and behaviors of a special nocturnal plant or animal in terse, imaginative poetry. On the facing page is a prose section giving further information about the subject of the poem, like an added nature study. The final embellishment consists of the layered, dark prints made by a special and tedious process of relief printing, then laboriously hand tinted. "Dark Emperor" is a spectacular work of yoked imaginations and arts that teaches while it enchants/ A glossary of terms in muted colors completes this lovely book of original verse. From a bay porcupine, called a porcupette, to a little red eft, many exotic creatures of the night inspire these poems. In closing, a quotation from the poem of the title: "O Dark Emperor/ of hooked face and/ hungry eye: turn that/ awful beak away/ from me;/ disregard/ the tiny hiccup of my heart as I flee (p. 12)." "Dark Emperor" is suitable for children ages 7 and up.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wondrous Night January 28, 2011

By Catherine W. Hughes

Format:Hardcover

Eleven living species welcome the reader into the wild world of the night, from the raccoon to the bat, with a poem and a printed illustration. A poem of the moon follows. Joyce Sidman's poetry captures the beauty and the mystery of the night, inviting the reader to explore the wonders of the wood. This is a wonderful book for children ages 5-8, especially those interested in the natural world.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous, gorgeous book December 7, 2010

By Riley

Format:Hardcover

The illustrations are absoultely spectacular. Follow the night from sunset to sunrise; find the nocturnal animals in the illustrations. So beautiful, and with a lovely poetic text.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Illustrations are magnificent! December 31, 2010

By molly

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a beautiful childrens book. The poetry is wonderful and the book is filled with adventure. The illustrations are amazing! We love it. Shipped super fast. We had it in three days.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read for grandma night April 4, 2013

By Barbara Howlett

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a wonderful opening to poetry for children. My sweetie and I spent many nights reading and discussing this book of poetry.

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Poems March 24, 2013

By Grace Murphy-Jenkins

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a poet's delight! The art is vivid and colorful, working well with the words. A plus on a school library shelf!

5.0 out of 5 stars So sweet. December 1, 2012

By Deborah L. Mace

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

THe author really captures the essence of the night and all it's creatures in these sweet and simple poems. Easay to see why this book is an award winner. You can almost smell the night and hear the sounds of it's creatures in these poems. Very nice.