How to Cross a Pond: Poems About Water [Hardcover]

Marilyn Singer (Author), Meilo So (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up

From “Water Music” and the “Babbling Brook” (it speaks in Brookish) to an ocean that “sometimes sings and sometimes raves,” Marilyn Singer has captured the nature of water in this insightful and lyrical collection of poems. Whether she is showing us gardens, all dressed-up in “diamond necklaces of dew or lace collars of frost,” or the “sudden summer stream . . . the stubby hydrant brings to the city child,” she shows us surprising and delightful new ways of looking at water and nature.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-6-In this companion volume to Footprints on the Roof: Poems about the Earth (Knopf, 2002), 19 poems celebrate water's many facets, from the towering strength of waves to the gentle murmurs of a babbling brook. Selections range from free-form narrative verse to rhyming couplets. "Wells," a particularly timely choice for conservation studies, recalls a time when water was something one had to work for, pumping, hoisting, or hauling it, and it was truly appreciated as a valuable commodity. Delicate, swirling illustrations in blue ink and watercolor evoke the images expressed in the poems.
Sally R. Dow, Ossining Public Library, NY
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 3-5. From the powerful surge of ocean tides to the quiver of one drop of water on an eyelash, Singer's clear words and flowing sounds combine the universal and the immediate to reveal the wonder of what is all around us. Never pretentious, she celebrates the physical joy of splashing in a spraying city hydrant as well as the wonder of the rain forest, where "every petal is a teeming shore." The rhythmic "Babbling Brook" is great for reading aloud; others, such as "Wells," fuse the physical with big ideas about conservation and freedom. There's also the funny, fractured fairy-tale poem, "Frog Prince," about a boy who wants to be a frog. The small, narrow book design is inviting; the clear blue type and splashy, blurry double-page watercolors extend the music of the words. Use this with Walter Wick's science book, A Drop of Water (1997) for a great cross-curricular connection. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (August 12, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 037582376X
• ISBN-13: 978-0375823763
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,200,770 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)