BooksForKidsBlog

Saturday, April 02, 2016

Stitch Earth to Sky: Sweep Up the Sun by Helen Frost

SPREAD YOUR FEATHERS,

SWEEP UP THE SUN,

RIDE THE WIND AND EXPLORE.

TAKE OFF IN A NEW DIRECTION

SWOOP AND SOAR.

It is spring, and outside the door is the sound of birds, back again, calling, fussing, and singing their nesting songs, a delight after their long winter's silence.

Even "common" birds are uncommon, when seen in all their beautiful colors and lovely aerodynamic forms, and heard in all the symphony of sound which fills the warming days of spring with life.

Helen Frost's narrative evokes poetry even in those lines in which the random rhymes of the text do not appear, and photographer Rick Lieder's painterly eye reveals the startling beauty of these creatures, their wings translucent in the sunlight, their feathers as full of light as Monet's brushstrokes, the arc of their wings as sculptured as a Michelangelo figure.

Frost and Lieder offer up portraits and lyrical descriptions of eleven familiar backyard birds--the jay, cardinal, goldfinches, and woodpeckers in their eye-catching plumage , as well as their drabber brothers, the sparrows and starlings, summarized in the appendix with thumbnail photos and information. Frost's and Lieder's Sweep Up the Sun (Candlewick Press, 2015) is a nature study book for all seasons and uses--poetry, art, animal science, and inspirational text.

In their starred review, Kirkus Reviews describes this book as showcasing "the splendor of nature through the happy marriage of literal and figurative images." and School Library Journal adds "A superb intersection of science, literature, and visual arts."

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