Using both Poetry and Informational Text in the Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night

Normally, if I have the choice I will not choose to pick up a poetry book.

 However, to have a variety of genres, I agreed to read Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night(it was actually one of the required reading for my class, but really it will be okay).

Well quite surprised, I actually enjoyed this book because the poems were simple; they did not have complex symbolism that I had to work through in order to understand the deeper meaning.

Each poem is about a different nocturnal animal.  What is specifically unique about this book is that as the poem introduces the animal, a blurb on the side explains in more informationally the habits of this particular animal.

For me, as I zoomed through the poetry (either because the writing was that simple and understandable or because I really am not a huge fan of poetry), I spent time contemplating the nature blurb.

I learned so much about ordinary animals like the cricket or the porcupine.  The pairing of these two literary devices truly brings the forest of the night to life in this children's picture book.

Furthermore, the pictures were absolutely exquisite.  The illustrator used a form of relief painting, which basically means that parts are carved out and the remaining portion is inked with the desired colors.

It always amazes me the amount of detail and time that can go into one of these pictures, and this entire book is pictured in this way.  It truly is beautiful.

Being a book about animals, however, I was hoping for some documentation of sources.  Unfortunately just like so many books, there were no references.  This book, however, is much too beautiful both in the illustrations and the words to ignore.  For this, I would recommend the book.