Good Books

The Goodnight Welcome

Ivy F. DeShield, contributing editor

One of the most enjoyable aspects of serving as contributing editor for Recipes for Good Living Magazine’s Good Books section is the opportunity I am given each month to share classic and truly special literary finds with young readers, their parents and the community as a whole. My latest discovery is “Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night” (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2010), a beautifully written and richly mysterious book of poetry from award-winning author, Joyce Sidman and brilliantly illustrated by celebrated printmaker, Rick Allen.

As a writer and poet, I highly treasure Sidman’s exquisite and thoughtful book of verse — a tribute to the creatures of the night and the natural wonders of this earth after sunset. As Sidman slowly pulls her readers deeper and deeper into her surprisingly animated nocturnal forest, the author gives voice to each of God’s miracles, big and small, from the massive oak tree to the tiny, chirping cricket. In the poem “Cricket Speaks”, she writes

All day
I wandered through
the quiet,
napping and gnawing.
Waiting for the
first chirp,
the quickening voices,
the raucous scrape
of wing against wing.

Now
it is midnight,
the trilling hour,
and all I want
is to feel the thick heat
on the hard case of my body
and sing,
sing,
till the branches tremble
and life
swells
to a single
searing,
unstoppable
sound.

Complementing Sidman’s gentle reflections of each night creature, illustrator Allen makes an unforgettable impression with his magnificently detailed artwork from cover to cover, including the striking print of a great-horned owl or dark emperor that perches ever so proudly in the trees above the nightly chatter and the soft pleas of his prey, “O Dark Emperor / of hooked face and / hungry eye: turn that / awful beak away / from me; / disregard / the tiny hiccup / of my heart / as I flee.”

With each of the twelve poems presented in this stunning picture book, Sidman’s voice rises and falls as gracefully as evening budding like a primrose and as dreamily as the wandering eft returning home to sweet waters after years of roaming the forest bed. To add to this work’s treasures, the author also includes a sketch of factual information on each page about her beloved woodland creatures which will more than satisfy the curiosity of readers of all ages. As always, Sidman is ever the consummate storyteller, especially in this delightful book, as she relates, examines and entertains from page to page. Once again, I offer you another must-read, my dear friends. This is my gift to you. Enjoy!