April First has traditionally been known as APRIL FOOL'S DAY, but that is not what this calendar-page-turn signals to me. Despite my (relentless?) insistence that THEME MONTHS are a mixed blessing, at best, April earns my unmitigated enthusiasm as an opportunity to celebrate poetry. And poetry offers an unlimited range of options to immerse young readers in word, sound, images, emotions, and imagination, whether using forms and structures or exploring free verse.
G. P. Putnam & Sons, 2020
WHOO-KU HAIKU: A GREAT HORNED OWL STORY is a picture book written by Maria Gianferrari and illustrated by Jonathan Voss. It feels like the perfect choice to feature on this first day of April, for more reasons than I will describe. Well, maybe I will mention just a few of those glorious features. Perhaps the first and best reason to love this book is that title and subtitle. Each haiku offering is one "chapter" in the life of a great horned owl pair/family, each syllable as luminous as is the cover moon that silhouette's this tender and tenacious family. From flap jacket images throughout each turn, the evocation of nature's brilliance and subtlety and power are evident.
In this case her word choices and phrasing echo the murmurations of owl feathers, unique in then bird world for being able to move across the skies silently. Things that might generate negative reactions (a snake or skunk dinner) are instead as natural and necessary as starlight and food chains. The direct and un-tempered events that comprise the few months of the life of a GREAT HORNED OWL egg/chick/hatchling/fledgling are both heart-wrenching and heart-swelling. Scenes throughout reveal the ways in which Nature's predators and prey interact from beginning (making use of an abandoned squirrel nest) to end (leaving home to survive on their own). Those ages and stages offer opportunities to share glowing light, intense drama, reassuring resolves, and invitations to examine our apparently "dull" surroundings as we discover magnificent reality. Each word choice and syllable is an equally impressive blend of simple onamotopoetia with evocative figurative phrases:
"In the rain they wait
Beneath umbrella wings
Safe and warm and snug."
* * *
"Slipping to the ground
Keeping, flapping, fluttering
Nest far, far away."
As is characteristic of Gianferrari's nonfiction picture books, back matter allows readers (and their families) to learn even more in concise and accessible text about the li vis of GREAT HORNED OWLS as depicted in this account. Poet/author Gianferrari is widely-acclaimed for depth and sensitivity of the research behind her interpretations of the magically mysterious lives of creatures that surround us.
In the spirit of poetic brevity, simplicity, and celebration, I leave you with this beauty and encourage you to info and share poetry every day this month. Then continue on with that daily pursuit all year long.
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