Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors by Joyce Sidman and Pamela Zagarenski

Image retrieved from www.amazon.com

Bibliography:

Sidman, Joyce, and Pamela Zagarenski. Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. ISBN 9780547014944

Review and Critical Analysis:

Red Sings from Treetops by Joyce sidman is a book of poetry that explores seasons in a uniquely colorful way. Starting with spring and ending with winter, Sidman’s portrayal of the seasons takes readers on a sensory-filled journey through a year in colors. Each season is described with a series of six or more poems. In the poems, colors are personified, with each color representing one or more objects. The poems speak of some colors you would expect, such as green in spring and brown in fall, but they also include some surprising colors like gray in summer and green in winter.

The poems in this book are written in free verse. However, Sidman’s use of the occasional internal rhyme has great effect. In summer she says “White clinks in drinks,” and “Green trills from trees, / clings to Pup’s knees, / covers all with leaves.” The unexpected rhyme gives the poems a boost - a little extra liveliness. Sidman also uses onomatopoeia throughout the poems in this book to great effect. Birds sing cheer-cheer-cheer, thunder booms, ice clinks, frog tongues snap, apples crunch, and on and on. The purpose of Sidman’s poems seems to be to alert all of the reader’s senses to the seasons. Her use of onomatopoeia allows the reader to hear the sounds of the seasons.

Sidman’s ability to appeal to all of the senses through the imagery in her poetry is quite impressive. Because of her personification of the colors, the reader has an immediate understanding of the color being described. For example, in spring, red is a cardinal, a leaf, and a worm. In summer, black is the sky, stones, bats, and a raccoon’s eyes. This personification, combined with Sidman’s appeal to the reader’s senses of taste, touch, smell, and hearing, creates an incredible sensory experience. In one short poem, she manages to appeal to all five senses: “In Summer, / White clinks in drinks. / Yellow melts / everything it touches … / smells like butter, / tastes like salt.” The reader is transported to a picnic on a hot summer day, vividly seeing the colors of summer, tasting a cold drink, and feeling, tasting, and smelling melted butter and salt on a cob of corn.

Sidman’s poetry is not the only thing that creates this sensory journey through Red Sings from Treetops. Pamela Zagarenski’s mixed media paintings provide beautiful pictures that perfectly illustrate Sidman’s words. In a book of colors, it’s only natural that bright, beautiful colors fill the pages. However, Zagarenski’s placement and mixture of colors on the pages is truly unique. The images for each color aren’t overwhelmed by that color. Instead, the color is sprinkled on the page, mixed with other colors. For red in spring, red birds are perched on branches, dropping red notes like cherries below. Red worms are being picked up by birds on the road, and a red door says, “come in,” as though the reader is welcome to enter into this season of color. Zagarenski’s illustrations give readers the feel of each season. Somehow she makes summer feel hot and humid, and fall has a crispness in the air.

For people who have not lived in a place with seasons, this book may not have as great an appeal. The images in the poems and pictures for spring and fall might not conjure the same feelings as they do for those who are familiar with all four seasons. However, I did grow up in a place that looked much like this book during each season. Sidman and Zagarenski’s combination of words and pictures took me straight to the best parts of each season. These words and pictures will remain with young readers for many years. This is a book they will return to often. 

Poem Used to Support Critical Analysis:

From FALL:

Red splashes fall trees,

seeps into

every vein

of every five-fingered leaf.

Red swells

on branches bent low.

Red: crisp, juicy

crunch!

First, I would share this poem as part of the whole book. I would read the entire book of poetry to students one time. Then, we would focus on this poem. I would show students the illustrated page while reading the poem a second time. I would ask them what object the color red represents in this poem. I would ask them to find that object on the page (the apples on the tree and on the ground around the tree.) I would then ask them what else is red in fall.

Next, as a class we would choose a color to write about. We would brainstorm about the color first. What objects are that color? What feelings does that color give? Then, we would write a list poem about that color as a class. After this, I would place students into groups and have them choose a color to brainstorm. As a group, they would write a list poem together and share it with the class.