Book Review of Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Color

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sidman, Joyce. 2009. RED SINGS FROM THE TREETOPS: A YEAR IN COLORS. Ill. by Pamela Zagarenski. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children. ISBN 9780547014944

PLOT SUMMARY

A cardinal sings its bird song throughout the year, as the narrator comments on the colors of the changing seasons. Spring is red, green, yellow, purple, white, blue, and pink. Summer is white, yellow, red, green, blue, and purple; but it is also turquoise, azure, cerulean, brown, gray, and black. Fall is green, brown, red, yellow, purple, black, and white; but it is also orange. Winter is all the colors of the other season, and winter ends with the color that spring began with- red.       

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Joyce Sidman uses colors to highlight the seasons of the year. Her narrator is accompanied by a cardinal. The cardinal provides the constant color red throughout the tale, as well as its bird song, “cheer-cheer-cheer.”

With a book that centers its text around colors, it is no surprise that Pamela Zagarenski’s illustrations play an important role in delivering the message. Obviously, the colors are the first thing a reader notices, but there are other more subtle aspects of the illustrations. There is a nice contrast between natural objects and man-made objects. The latter all have straight edges, while the former have none. Also, all the humans wear crowns of some kind throughout the story. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it is only to give a note of whimsy to the story.  

AWARDS AND REVIEW EXCERPTS

2010 CALDECOTT MEDAL HONOR BOOK

2010 CLAUDIA LEWIS POETRY AWARD

KIRKUS Starred Review: “Fresh descriptions and inventive artistry are a charming inspiration to notice colors and correlate emotions.”

HORN BOOK Starred Review: “A poet known for multilayered explorations of nature rejoices here in the way colors, and how we perceive them, change with the seasons… [with] the playfulness of the text and its sense of awe, mystery, and beauty.”

BOOKLIST Starred Review: “Succeeding seasons offer… opportunities for the colors to spread their particular magic…”

CONNECTIONS

* This book can be used to teach the colors. Also, this book can be used as an opening to student writing involving colors. Students can write their own stories involving colors and illustrate their stories with the colors to reinforce the narrative.

* Other books like this one include:

Weisbrod, Miriam. A RAINBOW OF POETRY FOR CHILDREN. ISBN 140818933

Penisten, Thomas. A TIME FOR COLOR: A BOOK ABOUT JOY. ISBN 9798985454017

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