RED Sings from Treetops a year in colors

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sidman, Joyce. 2009. RED Sings from Treetops a year in colors. Ill. Pamela Zagarenski. ISBN 978547-01494-4

PLOT SUMMARY
This is a beautiful picture book that consists of four different poems about the seasons of the year. The focus of the poem is on the colors that you see during that specific season and how they change as the season changes.  For example "Red swells on branches bent low. Red: crisp, juicy crunch! In fall, Yellow grows swells and lumbers down the block, blinking:Warning---classrooms ahead."

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This wonderfully whimsical and cleverly written book talks about colors that you might see during the seasons and how they will change throughout the year.  Joyce Sidmann uses these brilliant colors, enchanting pictures of children, animals and background to make a story that any age child could relate to.  She brings in the different senses to help describe the colors and happenings during the seasons. The words and illustrations makes one use their schema to bring in the aroma and sounds on each page. "Fall smells PURPLE: old leaves, crushed berries, squishy plums with worms in them. PURPLE: smell of all things mixed together."
Within the text, the color that Sidmann so vividly paints is highlighted and written in the color it represents.  This helps young readers experience the feeling and color she so well represents in her writing. 
Pamela Zagarenski's illustrations are amazing! Each of her illustrations are breathtaking with their vibrancy that is so full of detail. Each illustration is just as captivating as the text.  Zagernski uses the same character throughout the text along with her dog, who both appear to be royalty. They both walk through the seasons taking in each one with fervency as the season change. Zagarenski also includes red birds in every season which appears somewhere near the top of pages.
This is an excellent book to share with young readers because of the way colors are discussed in a sensory manner as you see the seasons change.  Young readers will be able to make a text-to-self connections using their senses, colors and shapes.  As a teacher, I would incorporate Science and Social Studies along with my Read Aloud in order to compact my lessons. I would use this text during the fall when we teach seasons.  What a great writing connection students could make as they experience the changing of the seasons.

REVIEW EXCERPTS

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: “This is an important book both for its creativity and for its wisdom.”

KIRKUS: “A charming inspiration to notice colors and correlate emotions.”

HORN BOOK: “Sustaining the playfulness of the text and its sense of awe, mystery, and beauty, the illustrations contribute gracefully to the celebration.”
BOOKLIST: “As the title implies, the colors that surprise on every page, do sing.”

CONNECTIONS
*Teachers could incorporate Science using the seasons and senses. Begin reading the book on the pages of illustrations with the smells and sights of fall. Teachers may bring in the smells discussed in the text and allow students to feel and smell fall. Possibly revisiting the text each season to introduce those sounds, smells and feelings throughout the year.
*Teachers could incorporate Social Studies buy using the text as a sense of communities.
*For younger students, the text could be used to teach colors, shapes, sounds, smells and other sensory descriptions. Students could draw shapes and use objects collected for colors and smells.

Other Books Written by Joyce Sidman

Sidman, Joyce. 2010. DARK EMPEROR AND OTHER POEMS OF THE NIGHT. ISBN 0547152280

Sidman, Joyce. 2005. SONG OF THE WATER BOATMAN AND OTHER POND POEMS. ISBN 0618135472

Sidman, Joyce. 2007. THIS IS JUST TO SAY: POEMS OF APOLOGY AND FORGIVENESS. ISBN 0618616802