Celebrate Animals Daily
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack
Many gifted children seem to have come into the world already madly in love with words. Not much later they begin to develop a passion for all the creatures of the earth. Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright serves as an important tribute to these twin loves. In a beautiful introduction to this massive poetry anthology, Louise Bolongaro (Head of Picture Books, Nosy Crow Publishers) eloquently notes that picture books serve as both mirrors and windows for young readers. The visual contents are mirrors that reflect children’s personal world back to them. Picture books are also windows through which the same readers can see into worlds different from their own.
It is difficult to think of a creature of land, sea, and sky that is not represented in this glorious collection of animal-inspired verses. Often particular species are grouped together. Poems and artwork about polar bears introduce the first three days of January. The days of January 4 and 5 pay homage to whales. Wolves are the subjects of both words and images that highlight January 7 through January 9. April 1, 2, 3 feature alligators, while bees dominate the July days of 18 through 21. The elephant sets off October 14, 15, and 16.
First published by Nosy Crow (London) in association with England’s National Trust, both domestic and wildlife species are found in this superb collection of words and images of creatures that walk, crawl, swim, and soar. Britta Teckentrup’s dazzling mixed media collages present the essential characteristics of all animals in their natural habitats.
Given a collection of poems for 366 different days necessitates short verse forms such as haiku or extracts from longer literary compositions. Gathering verse from a minimum of 400 years represents the words of such poets as William Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, William Blake, Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, Carl Sandburg, Elizabeth Coatsworth, Rachel Field, Ogden Nash, and Matsuo Basho. The poets represent at least 22 countries around the globe. Many passages cited come from translations of timeless oral expressions of indigenous people such as the Cheyenne, Chippewa, Anishinaabe, Lakota, Seneca, and Southern Paiute Tribes found in the present-day United States of America.
Each month of the calendar year presents a separate table of contents for poems that span its days. End matter provides indexes of poets, poems, and first lines of the 366 verses. The many verse titles point to the incredible diversity of the animals represented. For insects alone, poems celebrate the ant, bumblebee, butterfly, spider, scorpion, centipede, firefly, cricket, wasp, caterpillar, grasshopper, mosquito, and dragonfly. Domestic animals include the house cat, dog, horse, cow and oxen, while land animals in the wild include the orangutan, lion, elephant, snow leopard, tiger, zebra, yak, gazelle, giraffe, gorilla, crocodile, grizzly bear, hyena, and hippopotamus. Sea and sky creatures are also found in great abundance.
The animal poems are attractively complemented by glorious artwork. The October days of 23, 24, and 25 are devoted to the pelican. A large and regal pelican surveys its world on a particularly fine morning in a marsh-like environment suffused with yellow at sunrise. A giant early morning sun brightens the pelican’s day for fishing. An extract from Edward Lear’s humorous “The Pelican Chorus” makes October 25 a delight for shared oral reading:
Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!
We think no Birds so happy as we!
Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!
We think so then, and we thought so still!
The trilogy of pelican celebrations begs for the addition of more lines of fun with invented words to match Lear’s quartet of lines. A mammoth sunrise dominates the double-page spread. Perhaps gifted readers, budding artists or ornithologists may create a new, original illustration that finds the pelican in its primary environment at sunset rather than sunrise. The verse tributes to pelicans may inspire young writers to write a prose description of this majestic bird. (See Home Activities below for more ideas.)
Virtually any poetry format is found among the animal celebrations that Fiona Waters chooses to honor and some of them are definitely highly creative. The humble tortoise shines on the days of July 25, 26, and 27. The verbal brevity leads to myriad creative approaches to poetic explorations. E. V. Rieu’s July 26 inclusion features a singularly short two-line, eight-word poem that flips verse components upside-down with a title of 25 words that begins “Soliloquy Of A Tortoise...” A particularly inventive collage of green vegetation highlights the world from the ground-level perspective of a very large tortoise that yet another poet (Faustin Charles) symbolizes in his poem titled “The Moving House.” The tortoise does not need to search for a home. It carries its home on its back.
The blending of words and art is richly achieved in Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright. Britta Teckentrup’s illustrations are printed on richly textured paper she created. The sumptuous paintings lend themselves to seemingly fluid collages that are chiefly glorious double-page spreads. This superb melding of words and art make this a ready volume for oral sharing. The collected words and art images invite countless and repeated visits. Here is a book that mimics both natural history museum or zoo visits right in any child’s own home. While intended primarily to be read in chronological order from January 01 to December 31 (including a Leap Year, February 29, “The Sheep’s Confession”), readers may delve into this exquisite tome to cool off in hot months or to warm their spirits on the coldest of days. Here is an exquisite poetry anthology of mystical and magical words paired with deluxe illustrations.
Home and School Activities
Encourage readers to open this calendar-based anthology to their birthday. If Linda celebrates her birthday on the first day of October, she will discover Russell Hoban’s verse tribute, “The Sparrow Hawk.” Ask Linda to copy Hoban’s five-line rhymed poem and then next to it, write her own original tribute to this stunning bird of prey out for its daily food hunt. Perhaps she can compose a haiku poem about the sparrow hawk. Would Linda prefer a different animal species used to commemorate her birthday? If so, ask her to write a brand new animal poem for her day of birth complete with a new illustration.
Invite readers to locate one or more poems about a favorite animal such as the polar bear. The Index of Poems in the book’s end matter can be quickly examined to reveal polar bear appearances (at the very least on January 01 –January 03 and December 27). Read the multiple poems that pay homage to this Arctic giant. Ask children to select yet another appropriate day to compose verse about polar bears such as December 21, the Winter Solstice, and compose a brand new poem and illustration about the great white bear of the far North. Note the artistic challenge of creating a white-on-white monotone work of art that reveals the mostly colorless giant in its likewise all-white environment.
Use Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright! An Animal Poem for Each Day of the Year as a birthday book of friends and relatives. For example, what animal is the focus on a special grandparent’s birthday celebrated on April 11 (the seahorse). Copy Blake Morrison’s two-verse celebration of the king of the underwater steeplechase into an original birthday card. Illustrate the seahorse in its natural environment plus write a new poem about how a seahorse might want to celebrate its birthday.
There are many ways to stimulate the human brain, not the least of which is the memorization of stellar verses in any language. William Blake’s poem “The Tiger” (see January 31) is one of the most beloved of verses in the any language. Invite readers to memorize all six verses of one of the world’s most celebrated poems about the awesome splendor of this creature of “...fearful symmetry.” Memorized poems enrich not just the brain and the function of retentiveness, but reciting great poems from memory can become a welcome friend while waiting in a long line or nervously trying to make time “fly” while awaiting seemingly forever on a visit to the dentist! Is a perfect recitation of “The Tiger” a better tool than counting sheep when sleep does not seem to come quickly?
