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Dear Book Lovers, Welcome! I am delighted that you have found The Through the Looking Glass blog. For over twenty years I reviewed children's literature titles for my online journal, which came out six times a year. Every book review written for that publication can be found on the Through the Looking Glass website (the link is below). I am now moving in a different direction, though the columns that I write are still book-centric. Instead of writing reviews, I'm offering you columns on topics that have been inspired by wonderful books that I have read. I tell you about the books in question, and describe how they have have impacted me. This may sound peculiar to some of you, but the books that I tend to choose are ones that resonate with me on some level. Therefore, when I read the last page and close the covers, I am not quite the same person that I was when first I started reading the book. The shift in my perspective might be miniscule, but it is still there. The books I am looking are both about adult and children's titles. Some of the children's titles will appeal to adults, while others will not. Some of the adult titles will appeal to younger readers, particularly those who are eager to expand their horizons.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Poetry Friday - A review of Water Sings Blue

It is summer at last, and for many of us, this means trips to the seaside. In today's poetry book you can take just such a journey without leaving home. In fact you can do so from the comfort of your favorite reading spot. Throughout the book beautiful illustrations are paired with wonderful poems to give us a salty, wave-filled reading experience.

Water Sings Blue
Kate Coombs
Illustrated by Meilo So
Poetry Picture Book
For ages 6 to 9
Chronicle Books, 2012, 978-0-8118-7284-3
   When you go down to the sea, you are presented with a whole new world, a world where there is an open sky, where the seagulls fill the air with their cries, and where boats can take you away from the land. As you sail out to where “the water sings blue and the sky does too” you leave behind the pier, “its pilings huddled and dull.”
   Here the waves have many voices, depending on the weather and the wind. Some days the waves “swell and sigh” while on others they “wake and roar.”
   Beneath the surface, little fish swim, hoping against hope that they are not seen by a hungry shark. Jelly fish drift, their tentacles like a “kimono trialing.”
  In the deep “where the sea feels like a grave,” oarfish and gulper eels lurk in the dark. Perhaps a blue whale will dive down to these places, where shipwrecks sit on the bottom “far from home / under gallons of seas.”
   This extraordinary book takes us from the land, out to sea, beneath the waves, and then back to the tide line. We meet some of the creatures who make the sea their home, and come to appreciate how this watery world is a place full of mystery and contradictions.
   With gorgeous watercolor illustrations on every page, and beautifully atmospheric poems, this is a book readers of all ages will enjoy exploring. 

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