Red Sings from Treetops by Joyce Sidman

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sidman, Joyce. Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors. Ill. by Pamela Zagarenski. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. ISBN 0547014945

PLOT SUMMARY
Award-winning author Joyce Sidman brings colors to life while celebrating the seasons of the year via a medley of sight, sound, smell, and taste. Poems are accompanied by the fanciful and dazzling illustrations created by painter Pamela Zagarenski.  

CRITICAL ANALYSIS           
      Readers experience color as they never have before in this collection of seasonal poems seen and felt through the lens of color. Red “squirms on the road after rain” in the spring and “hops to treetops, fluffs its feathers against the cold” of winter. Yellow “melts everything it touches…smells like butter, tastes like salt” invigorating the sight, smell, and taste of yellow in the summertime. My favorite, Green, also finds its place in each season: shyly “peeks from buds” in the spring, “is the queen in summer”, “is tired, dusty, crisp around the edges” in fall, and “darkens, shrinks…waits in the hearts of trees” in winter.            

       Arrangement and language in short phrases and lines create a staccato rhythm of the poems with occasional rhyme –“Green trills from trees / clings to Pup’s knees / covers all with leaves, leaves, leaves!” Joyce Sidman incorporates onomatopoeia within the book with the “cheer cheer cheer” of the red robin’s song, the “BOOM!” of the white lightning storms in spring, the “Snap!” of the grey frog’s tongue catching a moth, and the “crunch!” of the crisp, red apple in fall. Highlighted, colored words and playful text placement add visual interest and balance to the full-page illustrations.

       Detailed, folk-art-ish, mixed-media illustrations by Pamela Zagarenski are created with acrylic, colored pencil, and collage usually painted on wood with some computer graphics. The whimsical and intricate creations directly complement and enhance the moods within the poems. Readers are sure to find a beloved color singing a favorite time of the year!

REVIEW EXCERPTS

2010 Caldecott Honor Award

2009 Cybils Poetry Award

Starred review in BOOKLIST – “As the title implies, the colors that surprise on every page, do sing.”

Starred review in HORN BOOK – “Sustaining the playfulness of the text and its sense of awe, mystery, and beauty, the illustrations contribute gracefully to the celebration.”

Starred review in KIRKUS – “This whimsical color calendar sparkles with creativity.”

CONNECTIONS
*Activity guide by the Junior Library Guild here.

*Invite children to think about their favorite color and how it makes them feel. Explore other feelings and their possible “color” match.

*Discuss the use of color personification within the poems and invite children to create their own.

*Another collaboration by Joyce Sidman and Pamela Zagarenski:

Sidman, Joyce. This is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness. Ill. by Pamela Zagarenski. ISBN 0618616802

*More award winning books by Joyce Sidman:

Sidman, Joyce. Song of the Water Boatman & Other Pond Poems. ISBN 0618135472

Sidman, Joyce. Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night. ISBN 0547152280