Water Sings Blue: Ocean Poems
Written by: Kate Coombs
Illustrated by: Meilo So
Chronicle Books, 2013
36 Pages
In this collection of poems, Kate Coombs depicts the essence of the beach with such beautiful words. In the 23 poems of this book, you get the full beach experience complete with a little bit of fun and humor. One of most beautiful poems in the story is “Song of the Boat”. In this poem Coombs describes the stillness of the ocean and the calmness away from the shore. In “Sea Urchin” you see Coombs humorous side when a sea urchin falls in love with a fork. No matter the type or length of the poem, the words flow right off the page with ease and grace.
Meilo So uses lovely blues and pastels to illustrate the story. The pictures of this book were the first thing that caught my eye. Every page is filled is gorgeous watercolor paintings from the shores of the beach to the bottom of the ocean. So captures the beautiful words Coombs wrote with her paintings. The words of the poems are placed thoughtfully so that they do not take away from the illustrations. After closing the book, the whimsical images of the ocean are still with you, leaving you with a feeling of calmness and an urge to take a trip to the beach.
I would use this book throughout a science class when learning about sea creatures because this book contains several different types. The illustrations would give the students an idea of the size of the creatures, like the whale from “Blue Whale” hovering above a shipwreck. I would use this book for a language arts lesson and have students write their own poem about their favorite part of the beach. I would encourage them to use whimsical words and throw in some nonsense words too. I would use this for a math lesson as well by having the students find how many different animals there are throughout the book and how many of each one.
This book won the 2013 Hopkins Poetry Award.
No comments:
Post a Comment