Copyright 2007-2010 Joyce Sidman. All rights reserved. Please ask permission before using any text or images on this website.
**"This whimsical color calendar sparkles with creativity."  (Kirkus, starred review)
Red Sings from Treetops
A Year in Colors
illustrated by Pamela Zagarensky
Houghton Mifflin, 2009
ISBN-13: 978-0-547-01494-4
Reader's Guide
 
Watch Joyce Talk About this Book
 
Awards
2010 Caldecott Honor Award
Claudia Lewis Poetry Award
Minnesota Book Award
Cybils Poetry Award
Horn Book Fanfare
Bulletin Blue Ribbon
Booklist Editor's Choice
CCBC Choices 2010
New York Public Library's
"100 Titles for Reading and Sharing"
ABC "Indie" Best Book
Junior Library Guild Selection
 
Reviews
**Horn Book (starred review)
"A poet known for multilayered explorations of nature rejoices here in the way colors, and how we perceive them, change with the seasons . . .[with] the playfulness of the text and its sense of awe, mystery, and beauty."
 
**New York Times
"Joyce Sidman’s language is vivid and deft . . . [it] draws mystery and magic around the most familiar scenes."
 
**Kirkus, (starred review)
"Fresh descriptions and inventive artistry are a charming inspiration to notice colors and correlate emotions."
 
**Bulletin (starred review)
"Talented poet Sidman fluidly moves from image to image, wittily personifying colors . . . the book has a freshness and visual impact all its own, and it will inspire a rainbow of uses."
 
**Booklist (starred review)
"Succeeding seasons offer . . . opportunities for the colors to spread their particular magic . . . .  And as the title implies, the colors that surprise on every page do sing."
 
 
How this book started . . .
 
Color has always had the power to lift my spirits and thrill me.  The first time I saw a cardinal on top of a tall tree, singing his heart out in the late winter sun, I thought, "WOW!"   On my daily walks, I started looking for color everywhere, in each season.  And it WAS everywhere--even in winter.  To me, each color seemed like a old friend come alive somehow.  This book is my attempt to bring color to life for others, as well.
In Spring,
Red sings
from treetops:
cheer-cheer-cheer,
each note dropping like a cherry
into my ear . . .

Color comes to life in this whimsical, vibrant book.  Pink hides, Green floats, Yellow and Purple hold hands, and Red . . . well, you'll just have to see.  Follow the white pup as he explores the sight, smells, and sounds of color within each season. 







Learn more about the Northern Cardinal, who flits from page to page and sings his spring song: cheer-cheer-cheer!