Earth Verse: Haiku from the Ground Up by Sally M. Walker
Published by Candlewick Press on February 13th 2018
ISBN: 0763675121
Pages: 48
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With its palette of reds and blues shot through with black & white, Walker and Grill have created a work of art and science. Combining geology with impressionist-style illustration and exposition told in haiku (5-7-5 syllable poems), the two ruminate and wax poetic about all of the aspects that make the Earth what it is. The book touches on the make-up of the mantle and core of the Earth, the rock that has formed and even fossilized plants and bones, natural phenomena like volcanoes, earthquakes, and glaciers, and finally to the water cycle that makes our planet habitable. The palette is soft and lovely, though there were times that I wished that the images were sharper. Some of the drawings feel almost like drawings of the human body (tissue, organs, muscles) than of hard rock, surging tidal waves, and sharp cave formations. The audience has got to be an older elementary reader as the choice to use poetry to explain scientific concepts and the language introduced to support the explanation are not for the younger set. There is unknown vocabulary (with no glossary) and illustrations that ask the reader to fill in some blanks with their fuzzy depictions. It’s a wonderful, creative effort and fits into the need for excellent STEAM resources, but it might assume a bit too much sophistication of its audience to make it a browseable book by the usual picture book-aged reader. The nine pages of end matter explaining all of the concepts touched on in the book are excellent.  Recommend for science collections, particularly in schools where a teacher can answer any questions that arise.

Reviewed by Jill O’Connor, Merrill Memorial Library, Yarmouth