NF Picture Books Reveal the Night - Blog Tour & Giveaway

   Visit Alyson Beecher on Wednesdays for Non-Fiction Picture Books at Kidlit Frenzy -- hashtag #nfpb2020! Thanks to her hosting and sharing and those who add their posts, you can discover and celebrate terrific nonfiction picture books! 

      

                  I'm on a blog tour today, excited to share a new book of poetry written by David L. Harrison, illustrated by Stephanie Laberis that is out February 25th. It's After Dark, poems about nocturnal animals. And, you have a chance to win a copy of this book!

           Vincent Van Gogh said, "I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day."  For this book, David has written twenty-two poems about animals who live and ensure their survival in the night and Stephanie Laberis shows their unique hues and markings in her own "richly colored" illustrations. When you read and see examples below, I imagine you will say that Van Gogh is right.

            Sometimes, I sit outside (longer in summer) to see if I can be still enough to spot a creature moving nearby, to hear an animal's cry. Most often I see a rabbit hopping, stopping for nibbles. Sometimes I hear owls, and one very surprising time, I saw a coyote walking down the street, readying itself for night work. Here is one view from my porch. We humans can't see much, but many animals can and need to.

        I don't fool myself, however. I know that other creatures are out there, living their night lives, just as David shows us through his poems, as Stephanie has illustrated those words. In this book, they've offered a peek at the magic "After Dark". As I read the poems, I imagine sharing them with students, excited that David cleverly includes so much of each animal's behavior in his words, including clues in the titles. For example, the very first one, "The Rehearsal" includes the behavior of grey wolf adults who hunt for food to feed young pups, keep them safe for now as they grow. I.E., they rehearse!

                   "For now, 

                     play tag,

                     pretend grr,

                     pounce ferociously

                     on your siblings."

Stephanie creates three scenes from the comprehensive poem with a double-page spread, a wolf howling at the moon, allowing the moon to light up the entire two pages; the wolf mom nursing her pups; and the pups themselves playing in the night. Here are those pups and the poem:

        This opening poem's delight sets the stage for more questions, this time about wolves, but also a wonder about what's next, what else can be discovered in the night? If only for a time, we can explore the night through David's and Stephanie's "night eyes"!

         There, the cougar, in "Posted Property" hides his leftover night meal, leaves his mark, "reminding others/where they should not be." In "Night Class", a mother skunk warns that "The street is/never empty." I smiled in remembering my own camping trips, when an owl goes hunting in "Owl Rules" and David reminds "you'll keep us sleepless/half the night" while Stephanie shows a camping family with its own 'owl' eyes hearing that owl in its nest hideout.

          I imagine many of you know some "night" creatures, but perhaps not the insects that are out,  taking their own meals in smaller bites. "The King" tells of the tarantula "flexing fangs/like spears in the night/moving off like black ink". A second scare "In A Mood" shows the scorpion "Stinger raised, pinchers ready, you enter the night."

          Peepers are possibly familiar to many, and David celebrates them in "Hear This! Hear This!, as are slugs, of "Slimy Character" who "leave a sticky line/across the walk". However, I cannot say I've known that the "Armored Night Knight", a nine-banded armadillo, can go underwater and "finds a brook of bubbling promise, holds his breath, strolls the bottom."

           Here in these poems and pictures lies a world to explore. I've shared some peeks, hoping you want to discover more about the animals at night we rarely see, as David writes of the raccoon in his poem that ends the journey in "No Fooling": "Fading shadow, shaggy streak,/vanishes silently up a tree." These survivors in the night trick us into believing nothing is out there, but they are. 

           Added in the book are brief paragraphs offering more information about each animal. The poems, illustrations and these notes will be a terrific start to more research if you choose to know more about the creatures "After Dark"!

           Be sure to find and visit all those who are sharing on this blog tour. Many are hosting a giveaway that you can enter. The deadline for entering my giveaway is this coming Sunday, February 23rd!

Here is the blog tour list!

          You can discover more about David HERE on his website. If you don't know David's work, you are in for a treat. His bio shares that he "has published ninety original titles that have sold millions of copies." and "His work has been anthologized in more than one hundred eighty-five books, appeared in dozens of magazines, professional journals, and interviews in print and online, translated into twelve languages, and presented on television, radio, cassette, and CD-ROM." There are so many books that I've loved from David, but you need to explore them yourselves, and be sure to find this new wonderful one, After Dark. Also find David on Facebook and twitter, @DavidLHarrison1

                   

          Find more about Stephanie Laberis HERE on her website, on twitter, @StephLaberis and Instagram. You'll delight when seeing her art!

         Thanks to Boyds Mills and Kane for the advanced copy and the giveaway!

             

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