Nature's Paintbox — Patricia Thomas

PreS-Gr 2 What artistic medium would Nature use to depict each of the seasons? This rambling poem asserts that winter would be sketched in pen and ink, spring drawn in pastel chalk, summer painted in watercolors, and fall conveyed in rich oil paints. The art is lovely-a snow-covered wall in black and white melts into a spring pastel with the blurred edges of chalk. Summer's blue sky deepens with a purple cast as the watercolor warm days become a frenzy of oranges and golds carrying youngsters full circle to a pen-and-inked page of winter once again. It's a successful conceit undermined somewhat by the enthusiastic stream-of-consciousness prose that doesn't allow readers to take a breath. Spring is blossoms/everywhere.../blossoms,/peach and white,/and pink;/fluffy, puffy,/pillowy,/billowy,/spun-sugar, /cotton-candy/blossoms;/blossoms;/blossoms. The enthusiastic lists of colors representing each season (autumn is crimsonrustyellowtancranberrybrown) at times overwhelm. Even so, the introduction of the four seasons through four mediums will appeal to art teachers.-Susan Moorhead, New Rochelle Public Library, NY