Song of the Water Boatman

Song of the Water Boatman & Other Pond Poems, written by Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Beckie Prange.

Delightful. When I saw Song of the Water Boatman, a 2006 Caldecott Honor Book, I knew it belonged on the Poohsticks bookshelves. A wonderful combination of poetry, art, and nature study, Song of the Water Boatman is a collection of poems about pond life. Poems about algae, the pond food chain, pond plants and different pond animals and insects. "I grow daughters like ears," goes a line in my favorite, "A Small Green Riddle," a poem about duckweed. The gents especially enjoy the poem about the predaceous diving beetle, and the wood duck poem, "Spring Splashdown." Each poem is lovely to read aloud, stunningly illustrated with Prange's beautiful prints, and is accompanied by a short informative paragraph about the subject of the poem. There's even a short glossary at the back of the book. We get this book off the shelf again and again, especially in the spring and fall when we're making our nature excursions.