Red - Mon, Mar 8

I found a new favorite book. Red Sings from Treetops: a year in colors. Has been such a delight for Ren and I. The author is Joyce Sidman and is amazingly illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski. The story, told in poetic stanzas, focuses on colors and what the colors are or are doing in the season for example:

Spring - "Green floats through rain-dark trees,...In spring, even the rain tastes green."

Summer - "Yellow melts everything it touches...smells like butter tastes like salt."

Fall - "Fall smells purple. Purple: the small of all things mixed together."

Winter - "In the winter woods, gray and brown hold hands. Gray and brown sway shyly, the only beauties left."

The verses just roll out of your mouth and the tongue is so happy to be artfully playing with these words. It is not a color book or a season book, but a poetry book with the color and season theme. The art is so intricate. The jacket states "The illustrations are mixed media paintings on wood and computer illustrations. The words for the seasons show up repeated in print in the background. There is a main character that is triangular and has a dog named Pup. The costume of this character changes to match or accent the seasons, but is outlandish and colorful. Funniest of all is that commonly inserted is a crown on the character or on extras in the pictures.

Published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston 2009

ISBN: 978-0-547-01494-4