Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems - Book Review

This post was written as a Master's course assignment for Texas Woman's University.

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Janeczko, Paul B. (Selected by). 2014. FIREFLY JULY: A YEAR OF VERY SHORT POEMS. Illustrated by Melissa Sweet. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press. ISBN 9780763648428.

2. BOOK SUMMARY

This wonderfully curated anthology of short poems celebrates the changing of the seasons in an extremely enjoyable and accessible way. Most of the poems are quite short, with many having only four lines or less, and none over ten lines. The book is paced beautifully and would make an excellent read before a child's bedtime. 

Several classic favorite poets are included, such as William Carlos Williams, with THE RED WHEELBARROW, Robert Frost, and Emily Dickenson. Janeczko also chose many popular poets of today in this compilation, such as April Halprin Wayland, J. Patrick Lewis, Joyce Sidman, and many more. Each seasonal segment of the book portrays the mood, colors, and activities of that time of year.

The illustrations by Melissa Sweet are outstanding. She also illustrated BALLOONS OVER BROADWAY, which appears as an earlier post in this blog. Sweet's beautiful, two-dimensional drawings/paintings bring a fabulous color palette to the book, with the colors radiating the feelings of each season.

We begin with the teals and pinks of SPRING, and progress through several poems that give a sense of promise and hope, a clinging to life. In THE ISLAND, by Lillian Morrison, we understand what it means to observe new life budding: "Wrinkled stone/like an elephant's skin/on which young birches are treading."  

In SUMMER, the colors of the illustrations burst into reds and yellows. This season brims with activity and encourages the imagination to run overtime. A HAPPY MEETING, by Joyce Sidman, paints the perfect portrait of a summer downpour: "Rain meets dust: soft, cinnamon kisses./Quick noisy courtship,/then marriage: mud." The SANDPIPERS (April Halprin Wayland) bustle around, "hemming the ocean" and we wish for the long days to last forever.

The wind gusts in with FALL, complete with crunching leaves and the mystery of fog. The illustrations settle into muted red, oranges, and browns. Cid Corman sets the mood in HEADLINE: "A leaf on/the doorstep-/don't even/have to pick/it up to/know the news." 

Then, suddenly WINTER makes a hurried appearance, a flurry of blues and whites, some serious fog, and the first snow. Robert Frost's DUST OF SNOW is included in this season, a classic favorite. The stars are bright, the nights are dark, and Anne Porter's WINTER TWILIGHT prepares us for a long winter's nap: "The crescent moon/And the round squirrels' nest/In the bare oak/Are equal planets." Cozy and comforted, the reader may find this to be the perfect time to drift off to sleep.

3. POEM HIGHLIGHT

The poem I chose to highlight from this collection is FOG, by Carl Sandburg. This poem appears in the WINTER section, a precursor for the imminent arrival of snow. After reading this poem aloud, I would lead the students in a drawing exercise to express their interpretations of the wonderful imagery in this poem, and to share later, if desired.

FOG

The fog comes

on little cat feet.

It sits looking

over harbor and city

on silent haunches 

and then moves on.

By Carl Sandburg