LS 5603 LITERATURE FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS

Review of AUTUMNBLINGS:

A. Florian, Douglas. AUTUMNBLINGS. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins, 2003.

B. Summary and Impressions (Plot is really not applicable to poetry)
This wonderful and silly book of poetry for youngsters contains 29 individual poems. There is a table of contents and the poems, although not labeled as such, are in chronological order as the season opens and closes. Apple picking and leaves of changing color come before poems of pumpkins, thanksgiving, and the first frosty freeze of the season.. Florian is as gifted at illustrating as in writing poetry and the book is a balanced and harmonious blend of the two.

C. Literary Merit:
The book is immediately attractive and approachable. The illustrations look very much as if they were made by elementary school children. The artwork is vital to the text and only 1 or the 29 poems is on a blank white page and that is at the very end of the book. The look and feel of the volume is a small, almost square picture story book.

Most children will enjoy this book of poems for several reasons:
1. The meter and rhythm is very predictable.
2. Each poem contains rhyming words
3. Children will enjoy the made up words and the sometimes humorous and un-lifelike pictures.

Only four of the poems display sophisticated illustrations that would be difficult for a child younger than 4th grade to emulate. These 4 illustrations convey texture upon texture and stylized drawings. It is not at all that they do not go along with the rest of the illustrations. These four paintings could stand on their own and the other illustrations look more as if a child was coloring along while the teacher was reading a poem or story and asking them to illustration the story or the feelings the story gave them. I do not find a reason that these more complex drawings are found sequentially from page 18 through 23. The poems with the most depth of illustration are: UP AND DOWN, AUTUMN QUESTIONS, AWE-TUMN, and GEESE PIECE.

I do realize however that for an accomplished painter and illustrator it may be just as hard or harder to paint an apple that is a mixture of purple and maroon pigments, one huge apple on a yellow square with one messy bite taken out of it and one little brown stem. A picture that would be typical of the first graders I taught long ago.

Many of the poems are lined up in typical verse style but a few of them have shapes like the e.e.cummings poems I grew up with. I think the variety of fall topics and diversity of artwork from realistic, to simplistic, and just downright silly will appeal to a large variety of students. I very much liked the simple self portrait of Mr. Florian on the back book flap in the “something about the author” place.

REVIEW EXCERPTS:

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL recommends the volume for grades 2-5 and has this to say:
“The childlike style of the various-sized watercolor and colored-pencil paintings (in fall colors, of course) mirrors the creative style of the age group most inclined to read the poetry. A natural for use in classrooms and library programs, and accessible to newly independent readers, these poems will delight youngsters.”

BOOKLIST recommends the book for a different age group than SLJ. They see it best suited for preschool to grade 2 and make these comments:
“Florian presents a winsome series of poems about fall, with the punning theme of the title carried throughout. Using rhyme, meter, and those puns to good effect, as well as changes in fonts and type, he adds to the sense of movement and joy in the poetry. School, holidays, playtime, and observation all figure here.”

REVIEWS ACCESSED FROM:

http://www.amazon.com/Autumnblings-Douglas-Florian/dp/0060092785/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-7575722-4136600?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192244255&sr=1-1

CONNECTIONS:

Florian has done to other seasonal poetry books, WINTER EYES and SUMMERSAULTS. Fans of one book would be expected to enjoy all three.