The Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night
Author: Joyce Sidman
Illustrator: Rick Allen
Published: In 2010 by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
ISBN: 978-0547152288
Synopsis:
The Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night was awarded a Newbery Honor in 2011. It is an enchanting collection of poems that transports you into the world of the creatures of the night. Joyce Sidman captures the different night life in the forest through variations in her poetic style. In each poem the reader meets a night creature; there are mushrooms and bats, crickets and spiders, porcupines and owls and more small night hiders. A separate set of informative prose sits across from each poem as scientific ballast to contextualize her luscious vocabulary. Overall, this is a wonderful resource for exploring poetry and learning about our nighttime neighbors.
My Reaction:
Joyce Sidman has created a wonderful set of poems in this book. Paired with the illustrations, they really take you on a journey through the night. The book moves from royal purple endpapers to a two page bleed of the forest. The golden hue of the picture along with purple of the endpapers establishes the setting. As a reader, you feel twilight approaching as the sun slips away beneath the horizon and basks the world in a rich golden glow. After this, the reader is slowly transferred into the night with the initial poem "Welcome to the Night." This progression into the night continues with the darkening of the illustrations and gradual lightening of them again as we get closer and closer to dawn. The book finally ends with a the poem "Moon's Lament," mourning the end of the night, and a set of melon colored endpapers the same tone as the rising sun.
I appreciated the author and illustrator's attention to these tiny details. It enhances the overall effect of the poems allowing the reader to traveling through the night without leaving the comforts of their own home. I also love the layout of this book. It is very formulaic. There are two pages for every poem and illustration. The poem rests on the left page while the informative prose reside on the right page. This is an ingenious way of manipulating the reader. By placing the poem on the left hand side it is the first thing the reader sees and therefore reads. This forces the reader to form an emotional and sensory based understanding of the situation before they encounter the more analytical explanation of the event on the right-hand side. I think this process helps readers better understand the scientific information they read because they have an experience based foundation to connect the information to. Clearly a large amount of thought went into designing the layout of this collection of poems to transfrom it from simple reading to a sensory experience.
I appreciated the author and illustrator's attention to these tiny details. It enhances the overall effect of the poems allowing the reader to traveling through the night without leaving the comforts of their own home. I also love the layout of this book. It is very formulaic. There are two pages for every poem and illustration. The poem rests on the left page while the informative prose reside on the right page. This is an ingenious way of manipulating the reader. By placing the poem on the left hand side it is the first thing the reader sees and therefore reads. This forces the reader to form an emotional and sensory based understanding of the situation before they encounter the more analytical explanation of the event on the right-hand side. I think this process helps readers better understand the scientific information they read because they have an experience based foundation to connect the information to. Clearly a large amount of thought went into designing the layout of this collection of poems to transfrom it from simple reading to a sensory experience.
My Rating (1-5 stars): 
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