MODULE 9: POETRY & SHORT STORIES Water Sings Blue

· Book cover image (OPTIONAL)

 Book Summary:
The poems are short and very quick reading. There are 22 poems in this book.  The illustration has been done wonderfully. The pictures help bring the poems to life. 

 APA Reference of Book:

 WATER SINGS BLUE by Kate Coombs , Meilo So | Kirkus Reviews. (2012, March 15). Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/kate-coombs/water-sings-blue/ 

 Impressions:
I am not a fan of poems. However, I picked this book because I love the sea and I thought it might be interesting. The cover is delightful. The words paint a wonderful image in my mind. The best poem I thought was Shark. She wrote: 
He circles and stares
with broken glass grin
His body a dagger
with lion's tongue skin
He slides through the water 
like a rumor, like a sneer
He's a quick twist of hunger
He's the color of fear.

I really like that end sentence : Color of Fear.  It strikes me with such passion and I have never thought that way about a shark, as true as it is. 
This is really a great book to help introduce children to poetry.

 Professional Review:

KIRKUS REVIEW

Twenty-three poems and evocative watercolor paintings pay tribute to the wonders of the ocean world.

The versatile Coombs shows she’s as adept at poetry as she is at concocting or adapting fairy tales (Hans My Hedgehog, 2012, etc.). She invites young readers into her celebration with an opening “Song of the Boat” and ends with the message of the “Tideline.” “ ‘Don’t forget me— / I was here, / wasss h e r e / wasssss h e r e …’ ” Varied rhyme and rhythmic patterns and surprising connections characterize these relatively short poems, which read aloud well and stick in the memory. There’s humor, interesting language and intriguing imagery, as when the Gulper Eel’s “astronomical maw” is compared to a black hole. Thoughtful organization and placement of text on the page and So’s wavery, watery illustrations extend the poems’ meaning. A series of couplets describing “What the Waves Say” is illustrated with panels of varying water-surface patterns. Three different jellyfish poems share a double-page spread; another spread emphasizes the size of a blue whale with its vertical orientation and a shipwreck lying at the bottom. Sand-colored endpapers show objects washed up on shore: a shell, a feather, a crab’s claw and what might just be the remains of a footprint.

Share this admirable appreciation with a wide audience.  (Picture book/poetry. 4-10)

 Library Uses: 
This would be a great book for poems and about the ocean. The poems are short so this is easy to read and discuss after each one. This book also opens up doors for children who have never been to the sea. This is a great book to read for some relaxing down time also.
As I was typing this thought popped into my head: Have the children sit at their desks with a couple of sheets of blank drawing paper. When something is read to them that moves them, have them draw it out, a rough sketch. When the book is finished have them finish their drawings and then show the book's illustrations to them.