Poetry: Dark Emperor & other Poems of the Night

Sidman, J. (2010). Dark emperor & other poems of the night. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Description from the Author's Website: 

"Come feel the cool and shadowed breeze,

come smell your way among the trees,

come touch rough bark and leathered leaves:

Welcome to the night.

Welcome to the night, where mice stir and furry moths flutter. Where snails spiral into shells as orb spiders circle in silk. Where the roots of oak trees recover and repair from their time in the light. Where the porcupette eats delicacies—raspberry leaves!—and coos and sings.

Come out to the cool, night wood, and buzz and hoot and howl—but beware of the great horned owl—for it’s wild and it’s windy way out in the woods!"
Retrieved 10/10/2017

Awards and Honors:

Newbery Honor Book

Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor Book

Boston Globe/Horn Book Award Honor Book

Chicago Public Library Best book of the Year

NSTA-CBC Outstanding Science Trade Book

Cybils Poetry Award Finalist

Eureka! Nonfiction Children's Book Award 
(from the author's Website)

Publisher's Weekly review:  

"'Welcome to the night!' cries the opening poem in this celebration of nocturnal life. Everything from snails to mushrooms has a role to play and something different to say (the title is taken from a concrete poem about a horned owl, narrated by its would-be prey: "Perched missile,/ almost invisible, you/ preen silent feathers,/ swivel your sleek satellite/ dish of a head"). Spiders offer advice, porcupettes pirouette, and the moon laments the dawn, all illuminated by debut talent Allen's detailed yet moody prints, which encapsulate the mysteries and magic of the midnight hours. Opposite each poem is a short note on the featured creature, explaining its appearance and habits. In Sidman's delicious poems, darkness is the norm, and there's nothing to fear but the rising sun. Ages 6–9."
Retrieved 10/10/2017

I recommend this book for grades 3-5. I have selected this book because it is deliciously evocative. I can smell the wet leaves in the snail's tale, and feel the hiccup of the mouse's little heart as the owl descends.  This book includes nonfiction descriptions of nighttime woodland flora and fauna as well as poetry. The beautiful illustrations and the poems and the fact filled prose all combine to provide a rich portrait of the woods at night. This book will speak to children's imagination and curiosity, as well as providing information about nocturnal creatures and woodland ecology.

Keywords:

Nocturnal, Woodland Creatures, Woods, Poetry

Kentucky Education Standards: 

3-LS1-1. Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

3-LS4-2. Use evidence to construct an explanation for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing. 

5-PS3-1. Use models to describe that energy in animals’ food (used for body repair, growth, motion, and to maintain body warmth) was once energy from the sun. 

5-LS1-1. Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.

5-LS2-1. Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.


Kentucky Department of Education. (2017). Kentucky DAcademic Standards. Retrieved October 10, 2017, from https://education.ky.gov/curriculum/standards/Pages/default.aspx 

Publisher's Weekly. (n.d.). Children's Book Review: Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman, illus. by Rick Allen, Houghton Mifflin, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-547-15228-8. Retrieved October 10, 2017, from https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-547-15228-8  

Sidman, J. (2010). Dark Emperor and other Poems of the Night. Retrieved October 10, 2017, from http://www.joycesidman.com/books/dark-emperor-and-other/