Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman, Illustrated by Rick Allen

Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman, Illustrated by Rick Allen

Summary: In this book of poems, the inner workings of the Night Life of nature comes alive. There are 12 poems, each one of them covering what life is like at night. Also, accompanying each poem is a brief paragraph about the subject of the poem or a creature of the night.. The first poem, Welcome to the Night, welcomes in the creatures that come out at night, and the animal facts on this page are about the nocturnal raccoon. The second poem, Snail at Moonrise, describes what a snail does, how it moves, and why it moves. The animal facts paragraph covers the Snail. The third poem and subject of the animal fact paragraph is, Love Poem of the Primrose Moth, which describes what a primrose moth is and what it does at night.Next, is the poem, Dark Emperor, which is about the Great Horned Owl, same as the animal fact paragraph. Then it is oak After Dark, which is about trees and how they look and what they mean to the nocturnal animals. This fact paragraph talks about the plethora of life that goes on in a tree during the day and at night. Following this poem is Night Spider’s Advice, which talks about the spiders the crawl in the night. The fact paragraph says that Spiders can work both in the day and in the night. The seventh poem is I am a Baby Porcupette, a porcupette is another name for a baby porcupine, as it says in the fact paragraph. The eighth poem is Cricket Speaks, which describes the life of a cricket, as does the animal fact paragraph. Next is another plant life, The Mushrooms Come, which tells of where mushrooms come from. The fact paragraph discusses how they are fungi and the purpose they have in this ecosystem. After the Mushrooms is the Ballad of the Wandering Eft. From this poem you learn how an eft moves and what it must feel like. In the fact paragraph you learn that and Eft is in fact a newt and why they move around at night. And now we have the Bat Wraps Up poem, which is about bats, of course. The poems describes what is must be like to be a bat and the fact paragraph tells you all about these nocturnal creatures. And last, but not least there is the poem Moon’s Lantern, which talks about one of the most important parts of the night, the Moon. The fact paragraphs tells all about how important the Moon and it’s light is to the creatures of the night. The book ends with a glossary, just clear a few things up.

Review: Introducing this book to young reader learned about animal nightlife would be so exciting. The poems are vivid descriptions of each animal, the illustrations are beautifully eye-catching. One of my favorite part of the book is the fact paragraphs on the side of each illustration and the glossary at the end of the books, which students can use as they learn how to use dictionaries and glossaries in textbooks. The appropriate age range for this books is from 6-9, however, I feel that the younger ones will enjoy this book as well.