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Summary
Summary
Under the desert's cracked and barren skin, spadefoot toads are waiting for rain. In the endless black of the deepest caves, blind fish find their way. Even in the frozen hearts of glaciers, ice worms by the billion flourish. In this fascinating look at fourteen animals who defy the odds by thriving in Earth's most dangerous places, renowned poet Marilyn Singer and celebrated artist Ed Young show that of all the miracles of life, it is life's persistence that astounds the most.
Author Notes
Marilyn Singer was born in the Bronx, New York, on October 3, 1948, and lived most of her early life in North Massapequa on Long Island. She attended Queens College, City University of New York as an English major and education student, and for her junior year, attended Reading University, in England. She holds a bachelor's degree in English from Queens and a MA in Communications from New York University. Marilyn Singer had been teaching English in New York City high schools for several years when she began writing in 1974. Initially, she wrote film notes, catalogues, teacher's guides and filmstrips. She also began looking into magazine writing. Her article proposals were not very successful, but she did manage to have some of her poetry published. Then one day she penned a story featuring talking insects she'd made up when she was eight. Encouraged by the responses she got, she wrote more stories and in 1976 her first book, The Dog Who Insisted He Wasn't, was published.
Since then, Marilyn has published more than 50 books for children and young adults. In addition to a rich collection of fiction picture books, Singer has also produced a wide variety of nonfiction works for young readers as well as several poetry volumes in picture book format. Additionally, Singer has edited volumes of short stories for young adult readers, including Stay True: Short Stories for Strong Girls and I Believe in Water: Twelve Brushes with Religion.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-8-Singer's poetic celebration of 14 animal species is fascinating, enlightening, and strikingly illustrated. The featured birds, mammals, fish, amphibians, insects, and mollusks have all adapted, over centuries, to life in extreme environments such as ice floes, salt lakes, and pools of oil, where they have found safety from predators and less competition for food. Many of the poems have unique, lilting rhythms; some are written in unusual poetic forms-triolet, cinquain, villanelle, terza rima-others in free verse and varying rhyme schemes. Singer demonstrates her ability to create vivid mental pictures in as few as two to five words. (The dipper-a songbird that eats aquatic insects and fish from clear streams and waterfalls-is "bathtub-toy small"; the limpet-a shelled sea creature's ".fine construction/employs suction." Singer has incorporated definitions of unusual words: "simoon," "hydrothermal vents," "intertidal zone," into her poems. Young, master of collage, has created a series of perfectly engineered stylized pieces that accurately portray the poeticized creatures by oh, so carefully piecing together torn and cut paper of varying thicknesses; photo segments showing lots of texture (prickly cacti, dune grasses, fur, wood, clouds, fibrous materials); foil; small basket clippings; pictures from magazines; and much painted paper. Six pages of endnotes include details on each animal species, along with brief information and a Web address that offer further details on poetic forms. This lovely, informative volume will attract poetry and animal lovers and prove useful in the classroom, as well.-Susan Scheps, formerly at Shaker Public Library, Ohio (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Singer (A Stick Is an Excellent Thing) approaches zoology from a literary standpoint in 14 idiosyncratic poems, with cut-and-torn-paper imagery by Young (The House Baba Built). Each spread features one species and the bizarre conditions in which it thrives. Ice worms squirm "beneath the glacial ice/ helped by their own antifreeze." Flamingos feature in a villanelle set in the salt flats they occupy: "This harsh and salty land-/ Flamingos find it grand." Torn, fibrous brown papers, representing a sandstorm, dwarf a nearly hidden camel; crumpled iridescent paper suggests the shimmery wings of petroleum flies: "Thousands/ of them are born/ in carrion, water,/ or soil. But not this crew. They hatch/ in oil." Endnotes provide paragraph-length descriptions of each creature, yet the experimental verse and minimalist collage can keep the remarkable animals abstract and distant ("[A] limpet is resourceful/ Its fine construction/ employs suction./ In other words, its thing/ is mightily to cling"). Better shared than read solo, Singer's poems marvel at unlikely existences. Ages 6-9. Agent: Brenda Bowen, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. Illustrator's agent: Edward Necarsulmer IV, McIntosh & Otis. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Poems in varied forms urge readers to marvel at animals living in surprising environments. The prolific poet (Fireflies at Midnight, 2003) again celebrates the natural world, here describing 14 creatures surviving in unlikely places. From Humboldt penguins on arid South American coasts to foxes in cities, Singer points out the contrast between our expectations and their lives. Worms in ice, flies in oil, swimming songbirds and fish in the airher choices range widely. Though the focus is their odd surroundings, she weaves in information about some of their interesting adaptations as well. Her poetry features judicious use of rhyme and alliteration. Some is free verse; others are written in traditional forms, described in an author's note in the back. They're set directly on double-page illustrations, collages of painted and textured papers, cut and torn, which, though reminiscent of Eric Carle and Steve Jenkins, have Young's irregular lines, distinctive brushwork and soft colors. This is a book for enjoyment rather than information. An additional paragraph about each creature appears in the endnotes, but these don't always answer the basic question of where it might be found. The author acknowledges some expert help but provides no source or index. A felicitous pairing of two children's literature pros to encourage our sense of wonder. (Picture book/poetry. 5-12)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Why would some animals choose to live in extreme heat, cold, dryness, or darkness? Fourteen poems celebrate the unusual animals that have adapted to equally unusual habitats where competition is lighter and safety from predators is greater. Humboldt penguins burrow eggs along the dry coasts of Chile and Peru rather than riding on ice floes; snow monkeys stay warm by huddling in hot springs rather than swinging from trees; and ice worms wriggle beneath glacial ice rather than soil, aided by their natural antifreeze. Other poems, including the styles of free verse, rhyming, haiku, triolet, villanelle, and terza rima, describe the adaptations of blind cave fish, mudskippers, mountain goats, and petroleum flies. The final poem, City Living, shows adaptation in progress as red foxes adjust to urban sprawl. Young's textured paper collage illustrations help evoke some of the planet's seemingly less hospitable locales. Endnotes offer more information about each animal as well as the poetry forms used. This enlightening collection brings beauty and respect to strangeness.--Leeper, Angela Copyright 2010 Booklist