Poetry Friday with a review of Daytime Nighttime: All through the Year

On our farm we get animal visitors all day and all night long. Owls live in our barn and soon after it gets dark they come out to look for food. Skunks also come out at night, and we have to be careful not to get too close to them when they are waddling around. During the day the scrub jays rule the roost, yelling at anyone who wanders into their territory. In today's beautiful poetry picture book we get to explore what are animals are doing during the day and at night. We also get to take a journey, month by month, through the year to see how the lives of animals are impacted by the changing seasons.

Daytime Nighttime: All through the Year 

Diane Lang

Illustrated by Andrea Gabriel

Nonfiction Poetry Picture Book

For ages 5 to 7

Dawn Publications, 2017, 978-1-58469-607-0

When you have a very full life it is so easy to forget that you are not the only one who is busy. There are little (and sometimes big) creatures around you who have full days too. Many species of animals have busy nights instead because they are nocturnal. While we are fast asleep in our beds, they are out and about looking for food, taking care of their young, and building their homes. All year long animals are active, day and night.

   In this beautiful book the author takes us through the year, month by month, and she shows us what animals are up to. We begin in January and we see a bald eagle “On a clear Winter’s day,” that is diving through the air down towards a snow-covered landscape. The powerful bird is just about to scoop a fish out of a river with its talons. In the evening a pack of coyotes make their way to the top of a ridge, and there they raise their noses into the air to howl into the sky.

   By the time March comes around the snow is gone, the trees have new leaves, and on a bright morning we can see the “silken design” that a spider spun. When the sun sets, a pair of skunks comes out to “Dig for plump worms” in the soft soil.

   In July quail parents, with their small, fluffy babies following them in a line, spend the daylight hours “searching for grass seeds / On which they will dine.” When the moon comes up the quail are resting, but the crickets climb up blades of grass to sing by the light of the full moon.

   Throughout this singular book, beautiful lines of poetry are accompanied by gorgeous illustrations. Together they take us into the lives of all kinds of creatures. We marvel at the rich scenes that we are offered, and perhaps seeing these moments in time will encourage us to look for similar ones in our own wild places.