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SONG OF THE WATER BOATMEN & OTHER POND POEMS



BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sidman, Joyce. 2005. Song of the Water Boatman & Other Pond Poems. Ill. Beckie Prange. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 9780618135479.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
In this poetry book about the life of a pond, Sidman composes eleven poems of varied poetic forms, including rhymed, free verse and haiku. The first poem, Listen for Me, kicks off the spring season by describing the emergence of spring peepers, commonly known as the tree frog. Fittingly, the final poem introduces the winter season through the burrowing of the painted turtle into the muddly bottom of the pond. 

Each poem is paired with a nonfiction paragraph highlighting a specific aspect of pond life, like the pond’s food chain, or the life cycle of the microscopic water bear. There is also a Table of Contents, plus a glossary, to help guide the reader.

This is also a Caldecott Honor book, which underscores the importance of Prange’s illustrations. They are woodcut watercolors and Prange plays with the intensity of the hues to emphasize the elements captured in the corresponding poem. The pictures boldly tell a visual story which is a worthwhile journey through the seasons.

SPOTLIGHT POEM AND LESSON

This book is appropriate for all levels, but would work particularly well with middle grades. To introduce this book, share the poem Fly, Dragonfly! I like it for its brevity, which allows the teacher time to review the nonfiction text features of the scientific blurb accompanying each poem, as well as the Table of Contents and Glossary.

Fly, Dragonfly!

Water nymph, you have
Climbed from the shallows to don
Your dragon-colors.

Perched on a reed stem
All night, shedding skin, you dry
Your wings in moonlight.

Night melts into day.
Swift birds wait to snap you up.
Fly, dragonfly! Fly!


After modeling the poem by reading it aloud, ask the class to participate in a choral reading by stanzaa, culminating in a reading of the entire poem by the whole group. After enjoying the poem, review the nonfiction text features of the book.

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