Children's hour

"Color Me a Rhyme"

By Jane Yolen. Photographs by Jason Stemple. Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press, $15.95. Ages 5 and older.

The thing about poetry is that children who are very young can enjoy it for its simplicity as much as older children can for its complexity. Author Jane Yolen asked photographer Jason Stemple to find photos of colors in nature and then wrote poems about the colors. She begins, of course, with green.

"Whatever angel had the task

of naming greens, squatting

on the hard new ground,

robe guttering at his perfect feet,

did not do his work well.

He gave us chartreuse, olive, leek,

emerald, ivy, beryl.

But they are not nearly enough

when the world is so much green."

Her free verse examines shades of gray, purple and orange (copper, apricot, pumpkin, tangerine, etc.), as well as white, black, pink, yellow, blue, red and brown. She concludes with "Crayon: A Rainbow Poem." This book isn't only fun to read, it also will inspire youngsters to write their own poems about colors of nature.

Yolen, a Massachusetts resident, is the author of many children's books and articles and began her writing career as a poet. Stemple's photos have appeared in numerous publications. He's a skier and hiker who lives in Crested Butte.

Copyright 2000
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.