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"Poems burst with sweet joyful noise . . . an elegant, inspired volume." (Booklist, Best Book of the Year)

Song of the Water Boatman

& Other Pond Poems

Illustrated by Beckie Prange

Houghton Mifflin, Spring 2005

Ages 6-10 ISBN: 0618135472

Watch Joyce accepting the Lee Bennett Hopkins Award

Listen to Joyce read from this book.

Reader's Guide (click here)

Awards

Caldecott Honor Book

Lee Bennet Hopkins Poetry Award

Horn Book Fanfare

NCTE Notable Book in Language Arts

NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book

New York Public Library's "100 Titles for Reading and Sharing"

Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book

Publisher's Weekly Best Book of the Year

Kirkus Best Book of the Year

School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

Booklist Editors' Choice

Booklist 10 Best Sci-Tech Books

Book Links Lasting Connections Book

Nick Jr. Magazine Best Children's Book of 2005

Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award List

Junior Library Guild Selection

Reviews

**Booklist (starred review)

"In this strikingly illustrated collection, science facts combine with vivid poems about pond life through the seasons . . . accessible and sophisticated . . . poems burst with sweet, joyful noise. [An] elegant, inspired volume, which teachers will use across the curriculum."

**Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

"This remarkable collection of Sidman's (The World According to Dog) poems about the flora and fauna found in wetland areas also occasions the book debut for naturalist and printmaker Prange, whose artwork recalls the grace and narrative finesse of Mary Azarian . . . with its unique combination of fact and fancy, this book is bound to delight pint-sized scientists and environmentalists--and language lovers, too."

**Kirkus (starred review)

"Readers will come away feeling as if they, too, have been pond dwellers for a season."

**School Library Journal (starred review)

"An organic union of poetry and science, this book encourages readers to ponder the minutiae and magnificent life of the natural world."

**The Bulletin (starred review)

"Throughout, soundplay is employed with delicate exuberance, making these tasty verses for reading aloud as well as alone, and the generously scattered imagery is telling and inventive."

Horn Book

" . . . with a humor born of skillful observation and light and color worthy of the Impressionists, [Sidman and Prange] capture the essence of this environment in all its fascinating particularity."

Boston Globe

"By the deft use of evocative language, image, and verse form itself, Sidman renders each creature in a poem that expresses [its] very spirit."

New York Times

"Rewarding and handsomely designed."

How this book began . . .

I’ve always loved water. As a kid, I frequently got into trouble for coming home with muddy sneakers, the result of straying too close to the nearby swamp (it wasn't called a “wetland” then, just a swamp). Summers were spent near lakes or ponds, swimming or canoeing.

Later, when I had my own children, we’d often visit ponds to fish or swim. I began to wonder what else (beyond fish, frogs, and ducks) lived in the water. What were those tiny insects that swam around? What happened to them when a pond dried up or froze over? As I learned more about water insects, their names enchanted me: backswimmer, water strider, water boatman. I imagined them as creatures in a drama, each with their own part to play. SONG OF THE WATER BOATMAN is a compromise between my wish to give each pond creature an imaginative voice (the poems), and my fascination with their real-life behavior (the nonfiction notes).

In the Depths of the Summer Pond

"Here hang the algae, green and small,

in the depths of the summer pond.

Here floats the flea, waving antennae,

that eats the algae, green and small,

in the depths of the summer pond.

Here nods the nymph with feathery gills,

that drinks the flea,

that eats the algae, green and small,

in the depths of the summer pond.

Here dives the bug, sleek and swift,

that nabs the nymph

that drinks the flea,

that eats the algae, green and small,

in the depths of the summer pond . . ."

--from Song of the Water Boatman, c. 2005