Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 03/01/2024 This fun, informative work uses famous trees and related history to introduce poetry forms. Washington DC’s well-known cherry blossom trees are here, as are California’s towering redwoods, but so are lesser-known trees, such as the Emancipation Oak in Virginia, where people who were formerly enslaved heard the Emancipation Proclamation, and the “moon tree” in Indiana, which was grown from seeds that visited the moon. An opening spread briefly describes 15 poetry forms from apostrophe (“A poetry form in which the narrator speaks directly to a person, place, idea, or thing”) to zeno (“10 lines of verse with the syllable count 8-4-2-1, 4-2-1, 4-2-1”), and the tree on each of the spreads that follow is accompanied by a poem illustrating one of the forms. Throughout, the majesty of the trees, the landscapes they grace, famous figures associated with them, and young visitors who enjoy the trees today are showcased in Lambelet’s attractively busy images, in which greens and browns predominate, sprinkled with other muted colors to evoke an arboreal feeling. This will find use in nature and poetry units to great effect. - Copyright 2024 Booklist.