A Review of In the Sea by David Elliott, illustrated by Holly Meade

True confessions—one reason I wanted to get my hands on this book was to check out the competition since my own collection of ocean poems came out about the same time. But not to worry; I quickly fell in love with David Elliott’s collection for its own sake.

Let’s start with Elliott’s dedication: “To the Gulf of Mexico and all that depends on it.” Nice, right? Then you read the poems. As a reviewer of a previous book put it, Elliott’s work is “pithy.” My own word for the poems is “concise.” Here is “The Shark” in its entirety:

The Shark

The fin,

the skin,

the brutal grin…

The terror

of the dark within.

Which pretty much says it all. In fact, in a positive homage to brevity, on one spread Elliott gives us four one-word poems for the urchin, the sardine, the mackerel, and the shrimp. Or rather, since the words in the poems all rhyme, this is a four-word poem—or maybe four linked poems. I’ll let you discover them for yourselves.

Some of my other favorites are “The Clown Fish,” with its commentary on the fish’s relationship to the anemone and on friendship in general; “The Moray Eel,” with its strong adjectives and two excellent metaphors; and “The Chambered Nautilus,” with its philosophical spin. The book ends with a marvelous poem about the blue whale that begins on a full spread and then departs in dramatic fashion in a single word on the very last page.

The illustrations are just as strong, done in woodblock prints (black ink) and watercolor. The printed black lines not only outline, but highlight details, as you can see on the cover image of a sea turtle. It’s a striking combination.

I was happy to discover that In the Sea is the third book in a series of sorts; the first two are On the Farm and In the Wild. Look for them, too—they’re just as beautiful, also illustrated by Holly Meade.

Water Sings Blue Launch

Big week for my ocean poems! They started shipping on Wednesday, but are already being reprinted. Today I'm doing a story time/book launch at a very cool indie bookstore in Salt Lake City, The King's English. Trying to think how to present well to 6-year-olds and my elderly aunts, who will turn out in force to support me!

Meanwhile, I've done some interviews around the blog and gotten a few nice reviews, to boot. (There's a little overlap among the interviews, but I tried to say different things when possible!) Here are the links:

Blog Interviews/Reviews

—Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast (Julie Danielson, also about Hans My Hedgehog)

—Jama's Alphabet Soup (Jama Rattigan)

—Cracking the Covers (Jessica Harrison; click here for a complete transcript)

—Paper Tigers (Marjorie)

Thanks very much to all those who hosted and interviewed me!


Press/Journal Reviews

—Wall Street Journal (short but sweet!)

—Deseret News (Salt Lake City)

—Kirkus Reviews

—Publishers Weekly

Oh, and check out the seashell gallery I put up on my author's website.

Wish me luck today...

Update, 3/25: For those of you wondering why Amazon says "11 to 14 days" to ship WSB, it's because the first printing sold out and Chronicle is reprinting. (This is partly because B&N is going to use the book in a beach book display coming up soon, so they've ordered a lot of copies.)

Update, 3/27: Another starred review! This one's from Booklist. That makes three—hooray!

Update, 4/15: Take a look at this post in which Meilo and I interviewed each other for the Chronicle blog. Great pictures and stories from Meilo!

Poetry Friday: A Watery Preview

I just heard from my editor at Chronicle; apparently she is working on selecting the cover art for my very first poetry collection, Water Sings Blue (illustrated by Meilo So). Woo-hoo! It's coming out next February or March, just in time for National Poetry Month 2012. I thought I'd give you a sneak preview by sharing two poems that didn't quite make it into the collection. After all, July and oceans go together nicely!


Albatross

The sky is my ceiling,
the sea is my floor,
as much as I can
I avoid the shore.

The clouds are my walls,
the wind is my chair,
I stride over water
and sleep upon air.


Advice to a Young Plankton

Slosh, slish,
swosh, swish.
Try to steer clear
of the ravenous fish.

Beware their mouths
like soup tureens—
those jaggedy teeth
above and beneath,
just waiting
to sweep you between—

and whatever,
whatever, whatever you do,
stay away from the glowering
mountains of blue,
with their caves of tall baleen.

—Kate Coombs, 2011, all rights reserved


Now, on to our many special guests this blue-sky-and-watermelon Poetry Friday! As always, please post your links in the comments, and I'll list them below as the day goes by. (I should start posting by 6:30 a.m. Mountain Time, so hang in there, East Coasters...)

—What better way to start off than with a bit of summery "Solitude" from William Wordsworth and our Poetry Friday leader, Mary Lee, at A Year of Reading?

—Unless it's with exuberant congratulations to the very talented Heidi Mordhorst, who is getting married tomorrow after 20 years with Fiona thanks to the new marriage laws. She celebrates with a love poem by e.e. cummings, "I carry your heart with me," at Juicy Little Universe!

—Thanks to April Halprin Wayland of Teaching Authors for giving us, not only sailboats and soursops in Fiji, but also a very cool poetry writing exercise involving keys.

—Charles Ghigna, AKA Father Goose, offers us a lovely original poem about a young dancer, "Stella Saw a Star."

—Over at Gottabook, Greg is celebrating summer with his strongly sensory original poem, "At the Beach."

—On the other side of the world from me, in Singapore, Myra Garces-Bacsal of GatheringBooks has an interview with poet Tita Lacambra Ayala about the 30-year anniversary of her Road Map Series featuring promising poets. In addition, Myra posts Ayala's poem, "Love Poem Macabre."

—At Paper Tigers, Corinne invites us to an event featuring Francisco X. Alarcón, author of four season-themed bilingual books of poetry, starting with Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems/Jitomates risueños y otros poemas de primavera. (Just want you to know I own all four books!)

—Our favorite Author Amok got to tour Louisa May Alcott's former home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts, last week. She shares highlights of her tour and a poem by Alcott, "A Song from the Suds." Thank heavens for washing machines!

—Now take a look at Changming Yuan's surprising white "Crow" over at Tabatha's blog, The Opposite of Indifference.

—Diane Mayr has given birth to Poetry Friday quadruplets! You can read Amy Lowell's poem, "A Petition," over at Random Noodling; enjoy Diane's own poem "Pledge of Allegiance" from her World War II collection, Kids of the Homefront Army; savor "Cricket Jackets" by Aileen Fisher at Kurious Kitty's Kurio Kabinet; or copy down the wonderful Mary Oliver quote at Kurious K's Kwotes. (This last is from one of my favorite Oliver poems, "When Death Comes.")

—Carol of Rasco from RIF reminds us that summer can be scorching with a poem by Denny Lyon, "Sweltering Summer Heat."

—Over in Haiti at There Is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town, Ruth shares the ultimate classic when it comes to summer: Shakespeare's sonnet, "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?"

—Mandy of Enjoy and Embrace Learning reminds us to savor the moment with Regie Routman's poem, "Now."

—On a sadder note, Doraine Bennett speaks of a friend losing her husband to cancer at Dori Reads; she gives us an Emily Dickinson poem, "As Imperceptibly as Grief," to honor him.

—Pentimento remembers her old parish church with an excerpt from John Logan's "Cycle for Mother Cabrini."

—Steven Withrow points out that sometimes summer days can feel too long with his original poem, "Boooooring." He has a poem for teens at Crackles of Speech, too: "School Play."

—As Shakespeare proved (see above!), you can do worse than spending your summer writing love poems. Irene Latham of Live. Love. Explore! shares her concise original poem, "Sixteen Words for Love."

—Thanks to Madigan at Madigan Reads for reviewing a new rebus take on nursery rhymes, Will Hillenbrand's Mother Goose Picture Puzzles.

—Anastasia Suen previews Marcus Pfister's clever couplet collection, Questions, Questions at Picture Book of the Day.

—Remember running through the sprinklers on a hot summer day? Elaine Magliaro of Wild Rose Reader does in her refreshing original poem, "Backyard Mermaid." Then at Blue Rose Girls, Elaine shares Margaret Atwood's "You Begin" and the original poem it inspired in honor of her daughter's wedding.

—Next Katie gives us a review of Read a Rhyme, Write a Rhyme by Jack Prelutsky over at Secrets & Sharing Soda.

—And finally, Libby joins us at A Year of Literacy Coaching with an appropriate end-of-the-day poem by Shel Silverstein, "Tired."

Thanks to everyone for participating in our beach picnic of poems!