Why read Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems?

Book cover of Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems

Book description

A collection of poems that provide a look at some of the animals, insects, and plants that are found in ponds, with accompanying information about each.

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Topics

Empathy

Genres

Poetry

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Why read it?

1 author picked Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Curtis Manley

Author

In poems as varied in sound and shape as each subject, we are introduced to a pond and its inhabitants—from frogs, ducks, and turtles to cattails, duckweed, and microscopic water bears. I love this book equally for its poems and for its beautiful, hand-colored woodblock prints (which won it a Caldecott Honor). The illustrations show each creature or plant and their specific niches in the pond, and the sidebar text tells more about each one, but in the poems we hear their voices—beginning with spring peepers:

Listen for me on a spring night,
on a wet night,
on a rainy…

From Curtis' list on The best picture books about empathy for the world’s creatures.