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Summary
Summary
A New York Times best-selling author shares his love for woodland animals in a revealing, beautifully illustrated collection of verse for poetry lovers and budding naturalists.
The animals in the dark woods are secretive, their inner lives a mystery. The stealthy bobcat, the inquisitive raccoon, and the dignified bear waking up from his winter nap are just a few of the glorious animals featured in this clever collection of poems and woodland scenes. This companion to In the Sea, In the Wild, and On the Farm is the first collaboration between David Elliott and Rob Dunlavey, whose colorful, expressive art pairs with the author's charming poems to create a love letter to the animals of the forest.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2--Journey into the woods with Elliott's picturesque poems paired with Dunlavey's lavishly illustrated forest animals. Author and illustrator collaborate to create a gorgeous homage to the animals of the forest as they cycle through the seasons. The book opens with a bear waking from its slumber and then follows a fox, a scarlet tanager, skunks, a fisher cat, a moose, and other animals as they go through their days. Some poems are very short. Some rhyme, a few have rhythm, and some are free verse--all are filled with figurative language that brings the creatures to life. These poems are complemented by Elliott's watercolor renderings which incorporate greens, browns, and grays. Yet all scenes clearly represent the change of seasons in the forest. One animal is spotlighted on each spread. This book gently introduces some scientific vocabulary and is a good starting point for discussions about learning new words. All of the animals have short profiles on the final pages offering fun facts that may not be common knowledge (for example, fisher cats are the only North American animal that eat porcupines). VERDICT Highly recommended for elementary libraries and elementary science and language arts classrooms.--Lia Carruthers, Gill St. Bernard's School, Gladstone, NJ
Publisher's Weekly Review
With wispy washes of layered watercolor and mixed media twining expressionistic feeling and key details, Dunleavy conjures a forest world to frame Elliott's engaging poems about woodland creatures. A bear peeks out of a dim cave: "The shadow stirs/ in its musky den." A bright smear perches on a branch: "Look! There!/ A flash of red/ in the spring/ green of the trees/ ...the scarlet/ tanager has returned." Elliott's clear language works to capture essential details--the tanager's color, a skunk's smell, a porcupine's prickles--veering in tone from wondering sincerity to subtle humor (moose get a two-word description: "Ungainly,/ mainly"). Fifteen creatures are featured, each on a full spread. Concise notes at the end offer facts that build on each poem; for example, of the tanager: "These spectacular creatures are famous for being hard to spot, as they love to be high up in the forest canopy." Pleasant and gently funny. Ages 3--7. (Apr.)
Horn Book Review
Once again Elliott (On the Farm, rev. 3/08; In the Sea, rev. 1/12; and others) captures the essence of a habitat and its creatures in poetry that manages to be both pithy and profound. Here fifteen poems, each on its own double-page spread, are devoted to animals of the forest. As in previous volumes, some poems are clever and funny ("Give the skunk / a lot of / room, unless / you care for / strong perfume"); others are almost elegiac in tone. A few are concrete poems, including "The Hornet," arranged in the shape of a hornet's nest. Dunlavey's art is not as in-your-face spectacular as that by some of the previous illustrators of the series but is perfect for setting and subject. His expansive watercolor and mixed-media illustrations feature aptly muted hues, with occasional bright spots: the red flash of a scarlet tanager; the pink of a wild turkey's neck. The compositions are focused and compelling--the viewer knows exactly where to look on every spread. It's worth lingering to find details of interest, however. A fox on the hunt "stands red /against the April snow," and our eye is caught and held by the intensity of her expression and posture. But look closely to see a squirrel clinging, unmoving, to the far side of a tree, and a vole hiding in an underground burrow. An ideal marriage of poetry and art; another successful entry in a long-running and (seemingly) perennially renewable series. (c) Copyright 2021. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
An exploration of woodland inhabitants in poems and pictures. Elliott introduces prereaders to 15 creatures that make the forest their home, ranging from the diminutive millipede and hornet to the "ungainly, / mainly" moose. Elliott's tight, mostly rhymed verse celebrates with great humor and insight each organism's distinctive qualities. Elliott chooses both common creatures like the skunk, advising children, "Give the skunk / a lot of / room, unless / you care for / strong perfume," and more stealthy types, such as the fisher cat: "Does not like fish. / Is not a cat. / I don't know what / to make of that. / But when you are / as fierce as she, / there's no need for / consistency. He admires even the unattractive opossum, "not a classic beauty" but notable for bumping "along the woodland track, / your babies clinging to your back: / there's beauty, too, in duty." Dunlavey's expressively atmospheric double-page paintings play with light effects, a scarlet tanager flashing through the dappled green and a porcupine that's just shuffled out of the beams of an oncoming truck. In addition to the pithy lyric portraits, Elliott provides intriguing facts about each animal in the backmatter, such as the "beaver's teeth are constantly growing," allowing inquisitive listeners to connect with these creatures in a variety of ways. An irresistible invitation to get out of the house and into the woods. (Picture book/poetry. 3-7) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In his poetic picture book In the Past (2018), Elliott explored the early days of the world through the eyes of the dinosaurs and prehistoric animals. In this companion volume, he uses the same conceit to illustrate the daily lives of creatures that live in a (presumably North American) forest. Each poem is dedicated to--and titled for--a specific animal, and the book spans all four seasons; in the first poem, a bear wakes as spring arrives ("Something has whispered / to its sovereign heart"), while on the final spread, a small herd of deer slip through the winter snow ("Nothing left but / heart-shaped tracks. / These, too, will disappear."). Elliott employs different tones and shapes for different creatures--for example, the blocky text of the hornets' poem resembles a hive, and the words break sharply, mimicking the hornets that buzz around the page. Some poems are somber and austere, while others, like "The Moose," are very brief ("Ungainly, / mainly."). Dunlavey's watercolors capture the lush hues of the seasons--there's often a touch of red--and invite repeat viewings. He mimics the energy of the text in his portraits of the title animals, blending other inhabitants of the forest into the background. A double-page spread of back matter provides additional facts. There's a lot going on in these woods, and author and illustrator together manage to honor them in a truly spectacular way.
