Song of the North - Hardcover

FRANK ASCH has written and illustrated more than sixty books for children, including the popular Good Night, Baby Bear. He lives in Vermont.

Gr. 3^-6, younger for reading aloud. From the team that brought us Cactus Poems (1998) and Sawgrass Poems (1996) comes a wonderfully constructed picture book, with text, images, and meaning making a coherent whole. Each verse is structured the same way: "Salmon knows how to spawn in northern lakes. / Salmon knows how to swim to the sea. / Salmon knows many things. . . . / But who knows Salmon / and the song she sings?" The first three lines are on a double-page spread with three photographs of salmon; the next spread carries another image of salmon and, facing it, a photo of a humpback whale. The poem progresses through walrus, puffin, dall sheep, caribou, moose, and bear, each kind of animal's song being heard by another: caribou by owl; bear by red fox, and so on. At the end, who hears the song sung by the Land of the North but a child, with her hand on the ground and her face alert for the music. Each animal is identified in a list at the back. The photographs are engaging without being cutesy; some are dramatic (two caribou look like they are dancing). A rhythmic introduction to some of the creatures of the North, especially pleasing because all of the animals are identified as "she," a welcome change from the ubiquitous "he" or "it." GraceAnne A. DeCandido