Winter Bees & Other Poems of the Cold

Reviewed by: Jeri Fitzpatrick - GNGMS, Gray, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: February 11, 2015

Review

Illustrations are linoleum print cuts, wood engravings , broadsheets, water colors, done in collaboration with his wife, Marian Lansky, and Jangle Miller. They are incredible.

The poems located on the left hand side with animal/plant facts listed on the right hand side. The table of contents gives the titles of 12 poems. The vocabulary is sensory: snakes, "flick your tongue and taste the flakes of autumn gold", skunk cabbage, " up through the slick of soggy snow", and The whole world is melting, "snow is slumping and dripping and staining the bark black!" The facts from the right hand side are interesting and sophisticated. Honey bees cluster, the ones on the outside "beg" for food which is passed from bee to bee. The outer bees "shiver" flex their flight muscles which help to warm the rest of the hive. Snakes hibernate or "brumate" as it is called for reptiles and most return to the same "hibernaculum" year after year. The author has won the Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children.

Overall Book Score: excellent