Shape Me a Rhyme: Nature's Forms in Poetry

by Jane Yolen, Jason Stemple (Photographer)

Overview

In this unusual collection, poems and photographs focus on shapes in nature. Some shapes are found in familiar places: A circle is the sun and a crescent is the moon. But there are imaginative surprises too: an alligator's tooth is a triangle and a frond's shadow forms a square. Related shape words—round, halo, sphere, etc.—are scattered throughout the spreads. This collaboration captures the beauty of shapes in nature in a playful way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620917916
Publisher:	Highlights
Publication date:	03/03/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	269,937
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

Jane Yolen has received numerous awards for her writing, including the Golden Kite Award, two Christopher Medals, and both the Kerlan Award from the University of Minnesota and the Regina Medal for her body of work. She lives in Hatfield, Massachusetts, and St. Andrews, Scotland.

Jason Stemple is a freelance photographer who has collaborated with Jane Yolen on many books, including A Mirror to Nature, winner of the John Burroughs Young Readers Award, and Wild Wings, winner of the National Outdoor Book Award. He lives in Charleston, South Carolina.

Editorial Reviews

Another foray in an extremely engaging series. These titles are beautifully designed, displaying eye-catching photography and inventive use of typography and placement. . . . Very enjoyable, and allows for much exploration.' —Kirkus Reviews

There's much to consider in each image, and language-arts teachers will relish this book's ability to jump-start student creativity.' —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

Gr 3-6 As in Color Me a Rhyme (2000) and Count Me a Rhyme (2006, both Boyds Mills), Yolen's delightful word pictures are paired to great effect with Stemple's impressive color photographs. "Triangle" is conceptualized through a close-up shot of an alligator, with the text's wordplay focusing on its "dangerous/And dagger-ous" tooth. The author artfully manages to paint an image or a feeling in just a few lines of terse verse, as in "Square": "A shadow square/Upon a frond/Resides beside/A quiet pond./Since nature rarely/Seeds a square,/We must make do/With what is there." Each poem is printed on a colorful background of the appropriate shape, superimposed atop a beautifully composed two-page photo. Various words describing each form have been scattered across the spread: "Wave" is accompanied by "eddy," "undulant," "billow," "surge," and "roller." There's much to consider in each image, and language-arts teachers will relish this book's ability to jump-start student creativity. It should also appeal to readers who will appreciate its thoughtful approach to nature.-Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CA Previously (Ahlberg)

School Library Journal

Indefatigable author Yolen and her photographer son make another foray in an extremely engaging series. These titles are beautifully designed, displaying eye-catching photography and inventive use of typography and placement. All of these poems rhyme except for one haiku, and while the photographs are all from the natural world, the shapes are sometimes presented in unorthodox ways. "Square" explains itself fully: "A shadow square / Upon a frond / Resides beside / A quiet pond. / Since nature rarely / Seeds a square, / We must make do / With what is there." Each double-page spread holds the photographic image, the poem, a matte cut-out of the shape and a few words that are synonyms or close in meaning. A pale photograph of the crescent moon floats opposite the azure shape of itself: The words are "sickle . . . semicircle . . . lunate" and the poem ends, "Your shape, like the side / Of a copper cent, / Out of pocket but / Not yet spent." Very enjoyable, and allows for much exploration. (Poetry. 6-9)

Kirkus Reviews