Ice! Poems about Polar Life
by Douglas Florian (Author)
Funny poems paired with intriguing facts introduce young readers to the fascinating creatures that live in Earth's polar regions.
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year!
The remote North and South Poles-- which poet Douglas Florian calls our Earth refrigerator-- are home to a wide variety of unusual, rarely-seen creatures including caribou, penguins, ptarmigans, narwhals, and many more! Young readers will love learning about these polar denizens and the ways they've adapted to their cold, windy, frozen environments.
Whimsical, colorful art and humorous poems introduce more than a dozen polar animals, and touch on the unique characteristics of the polar regions. Funny and educational, the book ends with an inspiring call to action about climate change, reminding us of our responsibility to take care of our planet.
Ice! Poems About Polar Life explores key scientific concepts such as animal adaptation, biomes, global warming, and interdependence in poems filled with rhyme, rhythm, figurative language-- and a huge dose of humor! Artist and author Douglas Florian is well-known for combining poetry, art, and science in books that have wit, imagination, and an aesthetic sensibility.
The poems included are: The Polar Regions; Antarctica; Emperor Penguin; Arctic; The Tundra; Polar Bear; Blue Whale; Krill; Arctic Fox; Musk Ox; Walrus; Arctic Hare; Seals; Snowy Owl; Narwhal; Gray Wolf; Puffin; Ptarmigan; Wolverine; Caribou; Moose; Climate Change
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Kirkus Reviews
Meet the animals and landscapes of the Arctic and Antarctica.
Poems in a lilting meter provide insight about the Arctic or Antarctica or one of each region’s unique animals, with a bit of interesting information included. There are lots of surprises in the inventive wordplay along with twisted syntax that gets the point across while invoking giggles from young readers. The leadoff verse introduces both regions as remote and farthest from the equator, calling their frosty climates “an Earth refrigerator.” Krill is the food choice of many polar sea animals, eaten by “Millions! Billions! Trillions! Krillions!” The narwhal with its front-end spear is “very hard to ignar!” The silent P in ptarmigan is carried throughout the poem as “it ptoddles on the ptundra.” Notes containing fascinating facts about habitats, food sources, predators, and more enhance the poems and just might lead to further investigation by readers. Some serious issues regarding climate change and other endangering problems are addressed as well. Full-page illustrations, rendered in colored pencil and pastel, accompany the verses and capture the essence of each creature with great imagination and childlike innocence. Color abounds, not only in the illustrations, but also with bright blocks of orange, purple, blue, yellow and more that background the poems. Florian is a master of light verse with a purpose, and he matches it with art that charms.
Thoughtful, fun, and delightful. (bibliography) (Picture book/poetry. 6-9)Review quotes
In typical Florian fashion, the rhythmic poems, mostly told from the animal's perspective, use rhyme, wit, and occasional puns to give kids a taste of the animal's physical characteristics, habitat, diet, adaptations, or other special traits. . . . As always, much of the humor comes from Florian's distinctive, childlike mixed-media illustrations on paper-bag backgrounds. The final poem, 'Climate Change, ' urges young readers to care for these animals and their environments. A funny yet socially conscious collection. —Booklist
JNF051100 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Science & Nature | Environmental Science & Ecosystems
JNF038090 - Juvenile Nonfiction | People & Places | Polar Regions
Children's poetry, American
Polar regions
