Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems

I love Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems. This collection is organized by the four seasons, making it a fun book to revisit throughout the year and touch on a bit of poetry each season. The poems are very short, but they create wonderful images with just a few carefully chosen words. Melissa Sweet's colorful illustrations are beautiful and add so much to the reading experience, making each page feel inviting and helping bring the poems to life.
I think this is a fantastic book for introducing children to poetry because it feels approachable rather than overwhelming. The poems are quick enough to share during a library visit or morning meeting, making them perfect for busy schedules. I can also see myself pulling this book out show more each season to read a few poems aloud with my library classes, and revisit during poetry month. It's an easy way to expose students to different styles of poetry while encouraging them to notice the beauty of the changing seasons.
My favorite thing about the book are the fantastic illustrations… I love Sweet’s work! This is definitely one I'll keep on my shelf for regular read-alouds. show less

Five stars, because it's "amazing." Not perfect. But some of the highest quality poems made accessible to newbies and children that I've ever seen.

See, I judge poetry by the images and feelings a poem evokes. I don't care for ballads, nor do I consider most nonsense to be real poetry (but rather, nonsense is more a sort of word-play like puns and riddles). Good haikus are poems. Much music is poetry. This book suits me. It has some classics; it also has some new to me.

Consider Joyce Sidman, she of the brilliant [b:Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature's Survivors|7623958|Ubiquitous Celebrating Nature's Survivors|Joyce Sidman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1309894229l/7623958._SX50_.jpg|10106657] and show more other collections. Here she is represented with:

_*A Happy Meeting*_

Rain meets dust:
soft, cinnamon kisses.

Quicky, noisy courtship,
the marriage: mud.
..............
I'll have to look for more by [a:Raymond Souster|284368|Raymond Souster|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] after reading

_*Spring*_

Rain beats down,
roots stretch up.

They'll meet
in a flower.
.............
One of Carl Sandburg's inclusions is new to me:

_*Window*_

Night from a railroad car window
Is a great, dark, soft thing
Broken across with slashes of night.
---
I mean, look at that. Look at the word choices. Broken, not wrecked or cracked; slashes not stripes or cuts... talk about those with your youngsters.
............
Ok, as I said, the book isn't perfect. For example, included is one of my favorites, _*Dust of Snow*_ by Robert Frost. But the key to the poem is "a day I had rued." And the illustration shows father and child heading home from an afternoon's sledding. They rejoiced in their day; they didn't rue it! show less

An enjoyable collection complemented by colorful, kinetic illustrations, but most of the poetry selections failed to evoke---for me, anyway---the seasons to which they were intended to belong. An occasional piece would spark the clarity of a summer night or the forlorn abandonment of autumn in the city, but the only section that wholeheartedly invited me into the textures, sounds, and sense of a season was winter.

I think that these poems are so sweet. They are kept short and match with the season they are in. The illustrations are bright and capture the weather and feelings of each season.

There are thirty-six very short poems in this collection, enhanced by stunning illustrations by Melissa Sweet.

The poems are divided into four sections, one for each season of the year. In Spring, for example, you will find this evocative gem by X. J. Kennedy:

"Open-billed
gulls
fighting
for fish heads
creak
like rusted
gates.”

Summer features, inter alia, the title poem, “Firefly July” by J. Patrick Lewis:

"When I was ten, one summer night,
The baby stars that leapt
Among the trees like dimes of light,
I cupped, and capped, and kept.”

In Fall you will find this wonderful thought by Jim Harrison and Ted Kooser:

"What is it the wind has lost
that she keeps looking for
under each leaf?”

What would winter be without some Carl Sandburg?

"The fog show more comes
on little cat feet.

it sits looking over harbor and city
on silent haunches and then moves on.”

You will find other beloved poets in this collection, including William Carlos Williams, Charlotte Zolotow, Langston Hughes, Robert Wallace, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and Richard Wright.

Award-winning illustrator Melissa Sweet used watercolor, gouache and paper to create outstanding mixed-media collages representing the poems. Along with the poems, the artwork demonstrates how dominant colors and moods change throughout the year. Furthermore, the pictures are full of movement and whimsey and hidden delights. Each page is full of revelations, and lends understanding to the poetry as well.

Evaluation: This book is not to be missed, even if you don’t think you are an aficionado of poetry. The poems are short and pleasing, and the pictures are wonderful. show less

This poetry book has poems throughout the four seasons of the year which is fun for kids and me. I really enjoyed this one. Very short but sweet poems to enjoy with beautiful illustrations that bring these poems to life.

This book has several very short poems that are loosely categorized into seasons. I'll start with the pros and uses for this book. The poems are very short and the illustrations match the poems, giving kids a really nice visual for each poem. Also, the illustration space to word space would be enticing to reluctant readers because of the high visual appeal. It is also nice how it is categorized into seasons. I could see a teacher reading one poem a week during a season, or it being read over the announcements to have kids connect to that season through poetry. My only critique of this book is the content. Not that there is anything wrong with the content or the poems, they are sweet understandable, and lovely, but I'm not sure it's all show more that interesting to kids. I'm not sure how many kids would enjoy the nature/environment content over something like animals or humor. That said, I do think there is a way to use this book that would have kids wanting to hear the next poem. show less