When Green Becomes Tomatoes: Poems For All Seasons

This slim book provides a nuanced look at a familiar theme: poetry for the seasons. Taking a diary-like approach, the text begins and ends with the spring equinox, offering poems for different days throughout the year. A blue bird's song starts thing... Read more

This slim book provides a nuanced look at a familiar theme: poetry for the seasons. Taking a diary-like approach, the text begins and ends with the spring equinox, offering poems for different days throughout the year. A blue bird's song starts things off, poking / a tiny hole / through the edge of winter / and landing carefully / balancing gently / on the tip of spring." Verse by verse, day by day, the snow melts, April showers fall, magnolias bloom, berries ripen, warm rivers beckonswimmers, fireflies twinkle, a new school year starts, leaves turn, and winter returns. The poems stand on their own as solidly as they connect to each other, inviting multiple readings to experience the details. Fogliano's (If You Want to See a Whale , 2013) descriptions are laden with imagery, evoking the sensations felt by a change in temperature or the flavor of a blueberry. Complementing the poems are Morstad's gouache and pencil crayon illustrations that range from effectively simple (a firefly glowing in the dark) to tantalizingly detailed (spot the inchworm or the ladybug in the shrubs). A multiracial cast of children relishing the delights of the seasons adds to this title's appeal. Pair with Paul Janezco's Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems (2014) for another poetic look at the seasons. - Booklist, starred review " Less