Title: Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors Author: Joyce Sidman
Illustrator: Pamela Zagarenski
ISBN: 978-0-547-01494-4
Citation: Sidman, Joyce. Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2009.
Awards: 2010 Caldecott Honor Award, A Junior Library Guild Selection, Claudia Lewis Poetry Award
Review: In Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors, Joyce Sidman expertly manipulates language to explore the unique colors of each of the four seasons. The figurative language in each poem is engaging and begs to be read aloud. Using imagery, metaphor, and a variety of other techniques, Sidman effectively captures the spirit of each season. Pamela Zagarenski's Caldecott-honored illustrations are captivating and perfectly paired with each poem. The vocabulary throughout the book is complex enough to maintain the interest of older readers, but not so complicated as to alienate the younger. Readers of all ages will fall in love with the rhythmic poems and beautiful illustrations in Red Sings from Treetops.
Potential Use: Red Sings from Treetops offers the opportunity to integrate poetry in the art curriculum at a variety of age and ability levels. For younger students, the poems and paintings in the book could be used to inspire their own artwork featuring a specific color. Older students can use the illustrations and poems in the book to inspire more advanced artwork, and then they could write their own poems to pair with their paintings. See below for examples of the colorful poems in Sidman's story, which would be ideal for integrating the language arts and art curriculums.
SPRING (p. 2)
In SPRING,
Red sings
from treetops:
cheer-cheer-cheer,
each note dropping
like a cherry
into my ear.
Red turns
the maples feathery,
sprouts in rhubarb spears;
Red squirms on the road
after rain.
FALL (p. 20)
Orange ripens in
full, heavy moons,
thick with pulp and seed.
Orange flickers,
all smoke and candles.
Orange eyes.
Orange cheeks.
Orange teeth.
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