The Poetry (and artwork) of Douglas Florian

-

Poetrees by Douglas Florian: Book CoverLizards, Frogs, And Polliwogs by Douglas Florian: Book Cover
Douglas Florian has written and illustrated over 30 books of poetry for children. His poems are often playful, sometimes a little dark depending on the subject matter, and his artwork is always a bit dream-like and entrancing and very visually satisfying. Florian's artist's statement is a poem in itself, beginning, "My drawings are abstract regressionist. They are old but behave like little children." I think that is a wonderful place to start talking about his work...
Mammalabilia by Douglas Florian: Book Cover
Florian has chosen many different themes to dwell upon artistically, all of them very kid friendly. His books include poetic and playful titles like Laugh-eteria, Beast Feast, Insectlopedia, Dinothesaurus, Mammalabilia, Autumnblings, and are filled with short but succinct poems that perfectly conjure up the subjects they are exploring, like The Rhea, from Beast Feast.

The Rhea

The rhea rheally isn't strange -
It's just an ostrich, rhearranged.





bow wow meow meow by Douglas Florian: Book CoverInsectlopediaIn The SwimComets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars: Space Poems and Paintings
on the wingbeast feastZoo's Who: Poems and PaintingsDinothesaurus: Prehistoric Poems and Paintings
AutumnblingsLaugh-Eteria by Douglas Florian: Book CoverOmnibeasts: Animal Poems and Paintings

Many of Florian's books are available in paperback, including Laugh-eteria, Mamalabalia, Insectlopedia, On the Wing, Beast Feast, Bing, Bang Boing, In the Swim, and Monster Motel and are well worth the $7.00 or $8.00 cover price just for the artwork alone. Also from Beast Feast, one of my favorite animals:
The Sloth

Up in a tree
The shaggy sloth
Is hanging by its claws.
It doesn't like to move at all.
It only likes to
p a u s e.



Popular posts from this blog

Be a Tree! by Maria Gianferrari illustrated by Felicita Sala

-
Image
Be a Tree! by Maria Gianferrari illustrated by Felicita Sala Review Copy from Abrams Kids I picture-walked Be a Tree! three times before I actually read the words. Felicita Sala's illustrations for Maria Gianferrari's poetic text are mesmerizingly immersive and richly colorful within a palette of earth tones. Throughout the text, Gianferrari, who shares her inspiration for this book in the author's note ( Peter Wohleben's The Hidden Life of Trees ), gently maintains the human connection to trees and the connections (and communications) trees share with each other.  Be a Tree!  begins exuberantly, inviting the reader to "Be a tree! Stand tall. Stretch your branches to the sun. Let your roots curl, coil in the soil to ground you." From your spine/trunk to your skin/bark and your heart/pith, the words carry you inward and then zoom outward and up to the canopy and ultimately, the forest. "You are one of many trees," and our roots "twine with fung
Read more

Under Earth, Under Water by Aleksandra Mizielińska and Daniel Mizieliński, 112 pp, RL: ALL AGES

-
Image
Under Earth , Under Water by Aleksandra Mizielińska and Daniel  Mizieliński is their fourth book I have reviewed here and their fourth book with the marvelous Big Picture Press , a publisher of oversized, highly illustrated, gorgeous books who believe that books should be "visually intelligent, surprising, and accessible to readers of all ages, abilities and nationalities." BPP definitely achieves this with every book they publish and, if you are a book lover, you will want to seek out all their titles. Under Earth , Under Water will appeal to anyone who likes to look inside things and understand how things work. With Under Earth, Under Water , the Mizielińskis, who have an illustration style that is filled with tiny details and a unique palette, take readers on a detailed journey, from the top of the page to the bottom, over and under land and then sea. The endpapers serve as the introduction and table of contents, with images scattered across the spread, page nu
Read more

Reading Levels: A Quick Guide to Determining if a Book Is Right for Your Reader

-
Image
While I wrote an article titled Reading Levels: How I Assign Reading Levels to Books, How the Publishers Do It and How You Can Help Your Reader Find the Right Book at the Right Time that discusses how reading levels are determined by professionals and amateurs like myself, there is more on this subject to discuss. Determining the reading level of a book from the children's section is never easy, mostly because there are several different standardized methods of determining reading levels. Add to this the fact that knowing their children's reading level is most often the only tool a parent is armed with when exploring the bookstore, library, website, etc, and the job becomes even more difficult. While I think that knowing a child's reading level is a very valuable tool if your child is reading below grade level, I think that it is a secondary consideration when finding books for children reading above, especially well above, grade level because, in most cases, content app
Read more