Winter Bees & Other Poems of the Cold

Winter Bees & Other Poems of the Cold

by Joyce Sidman
illustrated by Rick Allen
published by HMH Books for Young Readers


Filled with vivid illustrations and exuberant form poetry, the book is a delight to behold and experience, as it takes us on an excursion into the winter life of the creatures living in the extreme north.

Joyce Sidman, a master poet, has invited the kids to experience the magic of winter, as well as its harshness.

I’m a big brown moose,
I’m a rascally moose,
I’m a moose with a tough, shaggy hide;
and I kick and I prance
in a long-legged dance
with my moose-mama close by my side.
...

We instantly love this baby moose who is not afraid to tough it out in the tundra.

Chickadees song in collective voice is energizing.

From dawn to dusk in darkling air
we glean and gulp and pluck and snare,
then find a roost that’s snug and tight
to brave the long and frozen night.
...

Image Source: HMH Young Readers

Not just animals, but plants are celebrated as well -- skunk cabbage gets a dedicated triolet.

Skunk cabbage peeks up through the snow:
the first flower in the wood.
Wreathed in an eerie purple glow,
up through the slick of soggy snow,
smelling of rotten buffalo,
...

Even the snowflake!

Snowflake wakes,
whirling,
arms outstretched,
lace sprouting from fingertips

Leaps, laughing
in a dizzy cloud,
a pinwheel gathering glitter
...


The Whole World is Melting leaves us with the warmth and hope of Spring.

Printmaker extraordinaire, Rick Allen, adds intricate detail via the linoleum blocks cut precisely to present the exact image that livens up the poems. The hours of work involved in making these block prints is astounding but even more astounding is the results! Each page is a work of art that is simply brilliant!

Sidebar on each page provides notes about the animals.

We revisited this book for the National Poetry month and dream of housing a copy on our bookshelf soon. Also by Joyce Sidman, the Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night is a treat to read as well.

[image source: houghtonmifflin]

Snow-Day Jaunt

The unexpected winter storm gave us a much-needed break from routine, to take things as they come and slow down the jet-paced life. Winter storm was predicted, of course, but the 'unexpected' part is that this region barely gets any snow, except every few years when it can't seem to keep away...

After two days of non-stop play in the backyard snow and walking around the block during the snowfall to catch all the snowflakes swirling about, it seemed like a mini adventure was called for. Not being up for driving up to the mountains for skiing, we thought we might as well make it a treat!

Saturday mid-day, fortified by a hearty lunch, we trudged to the nearest bus stop. Took the bus. Half a dozen stops later we got off. Walked over to the movie theater nearby. Watched "Frozen"!

The 8 yo was longing to see it but had resigned herself to a 6-month wait when it might be out on DVD that we can borrow from Netflix.

It was priceless to see her thrill when at the end of the first part of the adventure, she got to sit in a movie theater (a rare occurrence) and watch to her heart's content! The 5 yo came along for the ride and enjoyed the movie anyway.

The trip back home was fun again, riding the bus back and walking from the bus stop to home. The half-day jaunt found us exhilarated and exhausted at the same time when we finally peeled off the 3 layers and sat by the vent to warm up.

All that was left to do was to have some air popped popcorn and some delicious hot chocolate. And then we were restored enough to get ready for bed.

Winter Break Activities

The first week of winter break is always full of potential - the anticipation, the opportunity to make crafts, to bake goodies, to do whatever the mood calls for... even a rare snowman in a place that barely gets any snow.

Roll, roll roll a little ball of snow on the powdery yard back and forth till a snowman materializes...

Make a Fish Card  for grandpa who loves fishing...

Fold Origami paper crane earrings for Mama and cousins...

And make Origami wreaths...

Bake cookies: when all I have to do is turn on the oven, put the loaded cookie sheet in and set the timer, get it out when done, I am all for baking batches of cookies. The best part was to surprise our neighbor with the fresh-from-the-oven cookies; and then frost some of them to give to her cousins. (The recipe Ana chose to use was from Christmas Cookies Bite-Size Holiday Lessons by Amy Krouse Rosenthal/Jane Dyer)

Melted Crayon stained glass card, cut wrapping paper collage card, snowman card... just whatever came to her mind at various times to create a card to send some Holiday cheer...

Salt dough ornaments...

The 7 yo managed to keep herself busy with many activities the first week of winter break. The younger one, however, was not liking this 'freedom', lack of structure...

But, he chose to write a book all about Space - not just planets and our solar system, but mostly about stars and galaxies and black holes. It was tough deciphering his writing, but, with a little help the words on the title page revealed themselves as saying,
"The illustrator is Og The author is Papa Rigel Sun Thanks Pollux" 
all phonetically spelt and written with laterally inverted S and such and not much regard to punctuation...

He credited Papa with authorship but apparently Papa had nothing much to do with the words in the pages...  Many stars and galaxies were illustrated, along with scattered letters describing and naming them somehow giving the impression of the vastness and ordered chaos that is our Universe... (at least, that is how my mind sees it)...

And what can be more fun than making up his own puzzles? Take a standard 8.5x11 copy paper; draw some stars and planets and galaxies on it; to make it extra challenging, draw on both sides, but just a slightly different picture of the same subject matter; then cut the paper up into random pieces; jumble up the pieces; try to assemble the pieces back together as before.

And to make it too impossibly challenging, he decided to take 3 papers of double-sided pictures and cut out 32 pieces all together and then try to put them back together after mixing and jumbling them up. (He never did manage to finish that puzzle so far - the pieces are 'saved' in a zipper lock bag for future attempts - although I cannot guarantee all the pieces made it into that bag.)

Snow Play and a Survival Lesson

Merry Christmas!

Finally the snow has melted away and we are warming up a bit here. Ana's school is still closed for Winter break and am finding it hard to keep her active physically. Parks and outdoor play is not my thing in winters, I just want to be cozy warm indoors...

But, the 10 days of snow seemed to have given a dad and his daughter a great chance to bond with each other in the backyard and discover their mutual love of outdoors, regardless of the blistering cold.

Not wanting to miss the opportunity, D showed Ana how to make an igloo and stay warm. An important survival lesson.

And, the customary snowman got built as well. Me, I could barely step out to take the pictures, so, most were shot through the window from the safety of the warm indoors. I do enjoy the crisp fresh snow and love to take a walk when properly bundled up in winter gear, but, I was too lazy to put on the boots and coat and such to step out to take a few pictures...

Ana helped make cookies for Santa, and for herself, of course. We made a huge batch of Christmas sugar cookies, all of which Ana decorated with care and patience, as seen in the picture!

Then, she dictated a note for Santa which D wrote down and left it along with milk and cookies, and of course, carrots for the reindeer :)

While it was a huge bother, all in all, I have to thank the 'act of God' weather conditions which constrained all of us to our home, thus giving us a chance to spend a lot of time, and a lot of quality time at that, enriching our lives... else, D would have worked all days, worked late at that as clients need their stuff delivered regardless, with the possible exception of Xmas day, and I would probably have taken a few days off before and after Xmas but worried about catching up when I get back to work, and Ana and Oggie would be sort of secondary in terms of getting our full attention...

C'est la vie, we take the good with the bad...