A New Green Day

Giving voice to wonders great and small, Portis (Hey, Water!) crafts short poems about natural things and events encountered over the course of a summer day: a tadpole, thunder, an inchworm, mud. Each voice poses a provocative, lyrical riddle answered through the turn of a page: “Morning lays me on your pillow,/ an invitation, square and warm./ Come out and play!” An envelope? No. The page turn reveals a patch of sunlight, dense with shadows of leaves and branches, falling across a sleeping child’s dark braid. Textures abound: “I’m a candy sucked smooth/ in the river’s mouth./ Let me sweeten your pocket” reveals a piebald pebble. A veined leaf duplicates a tree’s silhouette, fuzzy tendrils trail from a passing cloud, and starry night falls, “a black coat/ slipped around/ Earth’s shoulders.” The power of Portis’s poems, and the surprise each page turn allows, lets readers experience familiar moments with awakened senses, offering them nothing less than a new world filled with fresh experiences. Ages 3–7. [em]Agent: Deborah Warren, East/West Literary. (Apr.) [/em]