Forest Has a Song: Poems

(Cross Post from my own Goodreads Review of FOREST HAS A SONG)"I'm here./Come visit./Please?"I get excited when someone out there who gives so much to the poetry community by way of celebrating the works of others releases a first work of their very own. Well-known already in the social media circles with her presence in on-line discussions and forums and via her own blog, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater is someone to befriend and follow now. . .. . .because, in time, she is going to be huge. If FOREST HAS A SONG is any indication of what we might be able to draw from Amy by way of verse, she is well-poised to join the ranks of cherished children's poets such as Myra Cohn Livingston, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Betsy Franco, Joyce Sidman, Laura Purdie Salas, and Marilyn Singer. In fact, it brings me a certain amount of delight to slip Amy's new book onto the shelf with the others mentioned here.If "Forest" does, indeed have a song, it is gentle lullaby composed for the many voices that would come from within the foliage. And Amy captures many of them within the collection. Beginning with "Invitation," Amy welcomes readers into the focus of the book by employing the senses (and what a beautiful way to welcome new readers of poetry into the genre as well as into the book).In the following poems, italicized font represents the voice of the forest responding with its gentle voice to the presence of a small girl who has come into the forest. Like a child might do, this little girl picks up a wet stick and begins to break it apart:Spongy springy stickI pick it into tiny bits.Sliver sail the wind.I don't want to disrupt the natural feel of this wonderful book by mentioning the new standards coming out for teachers and students, but looking at this sample piece of Amy's verse, we can see into the simplicity of the genre while taking a closer look at how we might introduce alliteration, assonance, internal rhyme. And while Amy may not follow the rigidity of haiku (see what I did there), here is a mentor text in how the style may provide the frame for creative writing.Amy likens the tracks of the forest creatures as a text we might be able to "read" upon entering the forest in her piece, "Forest News." The poem ends:Scribbled hintsin footprintstell about the day.I stop to readthe Forest Newsbefore it's worn away.Amy, via her sojourner, moves deeper into the forest to find: fiddleheads (who sing "greenest greetings"),fossils ("forever dead calm"), lichens ("messages in cursive code")and lady's slipper (with masterful allusions to the familiar character of Cinderella). With these entities, I see an opportunity to employ Amy's book within a unit on field flowers or the ecology of a forest.As Amy's collection moves through the seasons, the reader experiences some of the changes--and some of the visitors who come and go--that occur over the course of the year. That the book moves through these seasons would make FOREST HAS A SONG a wonderful ladder to the D. B. Johnson series of Henry books that would introduce younger readers to the classic work, WALDEN.Robbin Gourley's water color illustrations and the colorful, leafy end papers round out a beautiful, beautiful little book that should be in classroom libraries every where. Just in time for National Poetry Month, this is one you would love to have on a desk during a poetry flood for that reader looking for gentle verse with a nature theme.There is so much to celebrate within this collection. I wanted to come out early in support as well as praise of this collection. Reading through it a tenth time, I am reminded that Amy's gentle spirit throughout this book is best found in her not telegraphing her unique play on words or her ability to render thoughtful verse, but it is found within Amy's continual and consistent pointing back to the forest she has invited us to consider and she has invited us to come in to take a look.

With so many children bereft of outdoor time to explore the forest and the natural world around them, books like “Forest Has a Song” become even more important. Never pandering to children, striking a great balance between being accessible but still leaving room for individual interpretation....Amy VanDerwater draws both parents and children into a delightful experience of seeing the natural world as something to slowly and thoughtfully explore. Amy’s straightforward and simple poetry leads us along like a quiet, knowledgable nature guide who is eager to introduce her friends of the outdoors to the rest of us. My five year old daughter and eleven year old son both loved the book.... making several stops while reading saying “Oh Mommy, read that one again!” and again....and again....savoring the word choices of something simple like a spider “knitting angles.” One my favorite images is of “reading the Forest News” by looking at the animal tracks in the snow, or a bite of wintergreen in the summer-- “Snowflakes fill my mouth.” The watercolor illustrations by Robbin Gourley are a perfect accompaniment to the author’s poetry, gentle but authentic. We were inspired to do a bit of watercolor painting after seeing the illustrations. Amy VanDerwater has much to offer to all who value children’s literature as a means of expanding their experiences beyond an inch deep and a mile wide.

If you love the forest like I do, you will also love what Amy and Robbin have offered in this new book of poems. They have shown the real things, like in the poem Puff, telling about those earthy wonders that one finds in the damp and dark of the forest, emitting a little cloud of spores when squeezed. And the poem Squirrel, pleading for the whereabouts of its secret stash. Amy's poems take us from entering the forest in full flower with a kind invitation, "I'm here./Come visit./ Please?" through the autumn in poems like Maples In October, to winter celebrated in poems like Snowflake Voices. And then there are the magical forest voices which appear in an young owl's voice, First Flight; along with the beautiful Lady's Slipper, named in the poem as "Forest Cinderella." Robbin's illustrations take us further into the poems with her beautiful and sometimes whimsical illustrations. A young girl is "us", wandering through, seeing all the wonder of this forest, and keeping the theme of the invitation to visit, we can pretend we're there too!I hope I've written enough of the beauty of Amy's poems to make you visit too. After reading this book, you can find more of Amy's poems at her blog, The Poem Farm.

The artwork is WONDERFUL in this book and a handful of poems are good too. I just do not have enough knowledge of poetry to know what type of poem each is or even judge if those poems were done correctly according to that type/category. However, I can say that to my untrained eye, most of these poems seem to be free form and not rhyming.. with a few being more about shape. I did like some of the alliteration though... and a few of the images painted by the words were amazing. Would I have bought this poetry book if I saw it in a store? I really do not know... on one hand, being a biologist draws me into the subject matter, the images are wonderful, and there are some poems I really like... BUT the the lack of structure felt odd in some poems and left me feeling more awkward than enjoyment... plus I read the whole book in less than 15 min and that was even with pauses to enjoy the art. I will enjoy the book now that i have it.... and will most likely re-read only the poems I connect to. I just wish they added a few poems in traditional poetry styles with rhyme (not the whole book like that - but just a few more so the book was like an overview of poetry styles or something). It would not hurt to have a one pager brief guide to poetry in the back so I could learn to appreciate it better esp since this poetry is really aimed at children.

ordered it for the school I work in but had a peep between the pages and absolutely loved the womderful rhymes