Our big home: An earth poem - Softcover

Award-winning author Linda Glaser is the author of many books for children including Hoppy Hanukkah! and Mrs. Greenberg's Messy Hanukkah. She lives in Duluth, Minnesota. www.lindaglaserauthor.com

Glaser's (Compost!) joyous appreciation of the interconnectedness of all living things forms the heart of this celebratory picture book; Kleven's (City of Angels; Abuela) brilliant, busy art gives it its soul. In lyrical free verse stanzas, the author exalts the life-giving rain, sun, soil and air that enable numberless plants, animals and "you and me" to inhabit a most amazing planet. Her exhilaration inspires a message of ecological respect without ever mentioning it directly. The text would be merely sweet on its own, but Kleven's kinetic mixed-media compositions, pulsing with flurries of color and light, swirl and flow as they accentuate the poem's happy rhythms. She creates a vibrant tapestry of people and nature in many settings: a city park, backyards, gardens, a sunset in the Middle East and a nighttime African savanna. This title is a good addition to the Earth Day picture-book canon, but it also stands apart as a sunny look at the wonders of the natural world. Ages 5-9. (Apr.)
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