Once Around the Sun

Children can always guess what time of the year it is by knowing the clues that mark each month. "Once Around the sun" is a sequence of poems for all of the months in the year. I really liked "October" because I am looking forward to fall and Halloween, also my son's birthday. October is about day lights saving and Halloween. All of my favorite things. This book would be great to teach children marks of every month.

Once Around the Sun displays narrative, lyrical, and free verse poetry as each page introduces a new month. The imagery pairs really well with the poetry and I really enjoyed the diversity of each page as the seasons changed from Winter to Spring to Summer then Fall. I'm concerned that some words like 'forsythia' will be too upper level for younger children to understand but I guess the book can be use to widen k-3rd graders vocabulary.

Once Around the Sun is a collection of twelve free-verse poems. The theme of each poem relates to a specific month of the year, and together, all twelve make a "year" worth of poetry

I loved this book. I thought the imagery was vivid and fresh, and the details were spot on in describing the months.

1. Have students write their own monthly poems.
2. Pick one thing out of each month's poem to study that month (i.e., different bird types for May).
3. Have students write poems to go with the "blank" pages of just illustration.

"Once Around the Sun" takes it audience on a journey throughout one year. The book is in the order of the months starting in January and ending in December. The poems tell the tales of the different weather that occurs each month throughout the year. The audience reads of the cold weather in January and sees how it warms up in March, but the cold weather is welcomed back come November. We also see the different kinds of activities that occur each month. For examples, the books and pencils are left behind in June, but when September rolls back around new pencils are bought for school.

This book of poems brought readers through one calendar year. Each poem had a similar style, but a different message. Some of the poems in the book were show more concrete, as other were just rhyming poems. Many of the poems contained the element of onomatopoeia (ex. "Chirping Chirring"). Imagery was seem all throughout the poems, and I could almost feel the different feelings for each month. The illustrations were also very well done, and contributed nicely to the collection of poetry. show less

This book is chock full of great metaphor and a new poem for every month that children can both understand and appreciate. This is a great book. I loved it.

The gentle, non-rhyming verse with the accompanying warm watercolor illustrations of multicultural children capture the essence of each month and season for a child.

Around the Sun is a book of twelve poems each dedicated to the months of the year. Each poem describes a child's activity for that month along with illustrations. This would be a good book to use in introducing poetry to children.