Roundup! Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature by Joyce Sidman

A SPIRAL IS A GROWING SHAPE.
IT STARTS SMALL
AND GETS BIGGER,
SWIRL BY SWIRL.

It's not every day that a new book makes a reviewer jump (or in this case swirl) with joy. But Joyce Sidman's and Beth Krommes' new Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature (Houghton Mifflin, 2011) is such a book. Newbery winner (for Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems (Caldecott Honor Book, BCCB Blue Ribbon Nonfiction Book Award))) Joyce Sidman provides a lyrical text which only adds to the striking beauty of Caldecott artist (for The House in the Night) Beth Krommes' lissome illustrations, gloriously done on bright white in amazingly detailed scratchboard and watercolor wash, inspiring wonder at the beauty and function of the nature's amazing spiral.

IT TWISTS THROUGH THE AIR
WITH CLOUDS ON ITS TAIL.

IT STRETCHES STARRY ARMS
THROUGH SPACE.
SPINNING AND SPARKLING,
FOREVER EXPANDING.

From the protected curl of a hibernating snake or chipmunk, to the unfolding wonder of a fiddlehead fern, from the tactile and visual beauty of a spiral seashell to the delicate tendrils of a growing vine, the spiral is one of nature's finest architectural creations, one which protects the threatened hedgehog and gives the New World monkey his astonishingly strong prehensile tail.

From a delicate orb spider's web to the power of a breaking wave, spirals are everywhere, present in the terrible beauty of the tornado and the star-studded structure of the Milky Way galaxy which is our place in space. The spiral serves us, fills us with awe, and with its curvaceous form delights the human eye with its mathematical perfection.

Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature is a unique and magnetic picture book, one bound to be in contention for medal honors, and one deserving of an honored place in any collection, private or public.