Poetry Friday A day Early: Fireflies!

I am jumping the gun today.

First, I am jumping the gun on Poetry Friday because for the next two days, things are going to be even crazier around my house than usual. And that means, "Oh, boy." And since I have been meaning to blog about this book for a while, I figured I would just get a head start.

I am also jumping the gun because it is not yet firefly season yet up north (is it the season already down south?). In fact, the best time for them as far as I am concerned is right around the fourth of July, up in New Hampshire, where one recent year we had the experience of seeing the twinkling bugs in the bushes, while at the very same moments, there were fireworks in the sky all around the lake. It was spectacular!

When I was young and living in New Jersey, I have a vivid memory of warm summer nights and running around trying to catch what we called "lightning bugs." And then, many years passed, and it seems like I was always living in places forever where there were none. Was it that they weren't there or did my life become too busy and complicated to see them?

Because this feeling of having lost a simple pleasure and barely noticing it was gone (until fairly recently in New Hampshire) I have to write about Firefly Mountain, by Patricia Thomas.

This book brought back time and place for me, and I think of that as what perfect poetry should be: evocative and transporting. I am not sure whether or not the story was meant to be free verse, but this book so perfectly reads like a poem that I thought that poetry Friday was the ideal place to blog about it. The story is direct, unpretentious, and very accessible. I happen to like it when poetry succeeds without being esoteric and hard to reach.

Yet, even with its total simplicity, the voice and memory of the little girl narrator precisely sets the mood by conjuring up vivd imagery. The painterly illustrations are very subtle. So subtle, in fact, that they simply provide the perfect background music for the lyrics of Ms. Thomas' song, rather than "illustrate." Coming from an illustrator, I do not think I have ever felt that book art should virtually disappear into the background and not be narrative, but here I am saying that this book works very well because that is exactly what happens. Honestly, there are books that I love and that I wish I had created myself. (like Shivers in the Fridge). This is not one of those books, because my style of illustrating is to to assist in the telling of the story, not sit back and hum along. I could not work this way if I tried. Still, I love this book because of it. The illustrator of this book is Peter Sylvada. He has worked in many other venues, including, as I just discovered, illustrating operas! So I guess the analogy to music was appropriate! Another book to enjoy with art by Peter: A Symphony of Whales, written by Steve Schuch. Lush and tactile, Sylvada's paintings show the presence of his hand at work in a way that much book illustratiion does not. Personally, I love seeing the brush strokes in book art, which shouts undeniable evidence that "a human created this." I assume that the paints are acrylics or oils, but even if he "painted" digitally (done correctly it can look real), it is the best kind of digital.

Early this summer, when the season hits, and you find yourself thinking that you and the kids might enjoy some firefly (or lightning bug!) watching, take a look at this book. See if it doesn't make you want to lie back and relax, enjoy a glass of lemonade and just listen to the crickets, before you go off to run aournd in the dark, trying to cup your hands around the flashing bugs.

BTW, here is an interesting post and picture of lightning bugs.

Comments

[Kelly]

We are cosmic twins this week, Barbara :) Great post!