Each silver
snowflake
sings my name.
Guess what?
No two sound the same.
I love LOVE LOVE that last line. We all know that no two snowflakes look alike, but that they sound differently? When they call our name? What a wonderful image! And while you might think it strange to start a blog post in April about snow, the flakes are fast and furious outside my window right now, so I’m just trying to stick with what mother nature is dealing.
This poem is from a wonderful book of poems just sent to me. And it’s Poetry Month, so that’s perfect, don’t you think? It’s called Forest Has a Song and in it a girl walks through the forest in all four seasons, listening to the song. There are so many wonderful kid-friendly images that really make the forest come alive.
On exploding a mushroom:
Puff!
I found one.
Puff!
It’s plump.
Puff!
Come see this
mushroom pump.
On tiptoeing on moss:
Barefoot on this emerald carpet
toe-by-toe I squish across.
I softly sink in velvet green.
Oh how I wish for socks of moss.
Aren’t those great? Other poems detail a fossil, a pile of animal bones, a squirrel, the song of the forest, deer and many more.
This would be a great book for a classroom. It would be fun to read on or before a family camping trip or hike. It would be fun to read any night, really. And you can challenge your kids to look for the sensory images in the poems. Can they hear a snowflake? What do they think it sounds like? Can they see a cardinal and do they think he looks like a kite?
Title: Forest Has a Song
Author: Amy Ludwig VanDerwater
Illustrator: Robbin Gourley
Genre: Poetry, Pictures, Nature
Ages: Almost any
You could also turn it into a scavenger hunt if you live near or are visiting a forest. Can they find mushrooms? Lichen? A squirrel? A deer? How many images from the book can they remember and see for themselves?
Older kids can make up their own images. Have them walk barefoot across something…a lawn, a pebbly beach, or maybe through a cool brook. What does that feel like? Would they want pebble slippers like the author wanted moss slippers? Can they think of a different image they would like?
Have fun with this book, and I hope you enjoy some of nature this summer. Just not the snowflakes, maybe.
Wendy Lawrence is a Seattle native who is now living with her husband and two young sons in Nashville, Tenn. A longtime educator and former middle school head at Eastside Prep in Kirkland, she now blogs about parenting and books at The Family That Reads Together.
