Poetry Friday - Found! That Bird in the Herd

    Susan Bruck hosts our Poetry Friday today HERE at her blog, Soul Blossom Living. It's nearly April, nearly Poetry Month, time for celebrating through words you want to write. Today, Susan shares some of the plans by poets during April. Thanks for hosting and gathering, Susan!

            I'm starting my poetry excitement for April early because I found a way to get  Poetry Friday friend Kat Apel's new rhyming picture book, The Bird in the Herd! It has traveled all the way from Queensland, Australia, bringing Kat's fond and fun memories in this newest book.

            I traveled to Costa Rica with students one year and we were fascinated when seeing cattle in the fields accompanied by some white bird, which we soon learned was a cattle egret. Now, years later, Kat Appel has written a book about that bird!

       I've always thought that one of the bigger challenges in creating a picture book is not only to tell a good story for children but to do it while rhyming, too! Kat has managed to do that with expertise in this new book, finding marvelous rhymes for this funny and entertaining cumulative story. Yes, it is about "The Bird in the Herd" moving along with some cows, a dog, and a drover (in the US, we might call him a cowboy) until yikes! something happens on that road that mixes everything up! I won't tell what but it's a smash ending, but without a crash, thank goodness. 

          In the story, with double-page spreads full of colorful antics and expressions illustrated by Renée Treml, the animals amble and ramble along doing what they are supposed to be doing, pushed along by that drover, a sweet country scene until it isn't! It's such a rhythmic read-aloud that I continue to be inspired to try my own rhymes! If you notice that I color-coded them, it's because the rhymes are color-coded in the book, perfect for helping young readers see those rhyming words, another terrific part of the book. Each page brings a new look at the travelers, clever action in the art and in the poetic lines. I imagine everyone will want to say "What's next? Turn the page, turn the page!" 

            Here is one double-page example of the fun look of the book in about the middle of the story!

         If you want to know the back-story of Kat's book and her introduction to it, look here. Also, Kat shared an activity kit for it here, in case you missed it a couple of weeks ago. I hope that many of you are able to find Kat's book and enjoy it as I have.

          Thank you, Kat, for this new special book about your very own countryside.