Winter Bees and other poems of the cold by Joyce Sidman and Rick Allen

A handsome, persuasive, and authentic ambassador for creatures in their natural state. Horn Book

A work to be savored by young artists and scientists. Kirkus Star review

The cover alone is worth the price of admission. A beautifully textured fox is midair on a pounce over some unseen prey. Although the illustration is far from photorealistic it still seems like you could touch the soft fur. Carol Hurst

When I visit a library I do enjoy browsing their poetry shelves. Last week I chanced upon Winter Bees and other poems of the cold. This appealed to me straight away because bees fascinate me, it is Winter here in Australia and I saw this book was a winner of the Bull Bransom Award which I have mentioned previously.  This book is a worthy winner and a book to treasure.

This is a perfect book for animal lovers. On each double page we meet an animal or plant and hear of their survival during the harsh season of Winter. On the facing page there are further scientific details. I discovered some new words (and yes there is a glossary) such as brumate (a motionless sate during cold weather), ectothermic (another word for cold blooded), subnivean (the layer between snow and the ground) and pantoum (a poetry form).

You can see the page format here:

The poems are so varied. Some animals you will meet are the moose, wolf, vole and raven. There are two insect poems - bees and 'snow fleas'.  You can also read about birds like the swan and chickadee, along with the ways trees survive and the formation of  the snow itself.

Here is the poem about the Beaver (form pantoum)

In the far white wigwam
made of rippled chips and thrashing twigs
is a heart of fur, curled and cozy
far beneath the winter sunshine.

Made of ripped chips and thrashing twigs,
it gathers silence now
beneath the winter sunshine,
under ice, under snow.

It gathers silence now,
but in the dim oval room
under ice, under sow,
strong brown bullets dive.

In the dim oval room
they groom, snack, kiss:
strong brown bullets that dive
in the under-ice world.

They groom, snack, kiss:
a heart of fur, curled and cozy
in the under-ice world
of the fat white wigwam.

Here is a set of teaching ideas from the author.  Here is a review with more details. Take a look here at the other impressive titles by Joyce Sidman.  You can find Red sings from the Treetops in our school library.