Joyce Sidman

Newbery-Honor winning author Joyce Sidman explores the extraordinary life and scientific discoveries of Maria Merian, who discovered the truth about metamorphosis and documented the science behind the mystery in this visual biography that features many original paintings by Maria herself.

How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science

The Girl who Drew Butterflies

spirals in nature

Swirl by swirl

Let snow fall overnight and change the world before morning, making it "slow and delightful and white."

Before Morning

The names of colors are woven into unrhymed poems that celebrate the seasons.

A Year in Colors

Red Sings from Treetops

Miren Asiain Lora

Poems to Our Planet

Hello, Earth!

Presents a collection of inspirational poems that offer hope, wisdom, comfort, and humor for life's challenging moments.

Chants, Charms, and Blessings

What the Heart Knows

A collection of poems that provide a look at some of the animals, insects, and plants that are found in ponds, with accompanying information about each.

& Other Pond Poems

Song of the Water Boatman

A collection of poems that celebrates the wonder, mystery, and danger of the night and describes the many things that hide in the dark.

Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night

If you look closely, you will find that the world is bursting, swelling, budding, and ripening with round things awaiting discovery--like eggs about to hatch, sunflowers stretching toward the sun, or planets slowly spinning together for billions of years. Whimsical and imaginative, this poetic ode to all that is round and full of wonder by the Newbery Honor-winning author and poet Joyce Sidman, with illustrations by the two-time New York Best Illustrated Book award recipient Taeeun Yoo, inspires curiosity and wonder for this (round) little earth we call home.

Round

If you look closely, you will find that the world is bursting, swelling, budding, and ripening with round things awaiting discovery—like eggs about to hatch, sunflowers stretching toward the sun, or planets slowly spinning together for billions of years. Whimsical and imaginative, this poetic ode to all that is round and full of wonder by the Newbery Honor–winning author and poet Joyce Sidman, with illustrations by the two-time New York Best Illustrated Book award recipient Taeeun Yoo, inspires curiosity and wonder for this (round) little earth we call home.

Celebrates the animals who hibernate and survive in the cold during the winter months.

Winter Bees & Other Poems of the Cold

Beginning with the rising sun and ending with twilight, a tour through the hidden world of the meadow encourages readers to watch for a nest of rabbits, a foamy spittlebug, a leaping grasshopper, bright milkweed, a quick fox, and a cruising hawk.

Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow

From the creators of the Caldecott Honor Book Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems comes a celebration of ubiquitous life forms among us. Newbery Honor-winning poet Joyce Sidman presents another unusual blend of fine poetry and fascinating science illustrated in exquisite hand-colored linocuts by Caldecott Honor artist Beckie Prange. Ubiquitous (yoo-bik-wi-tuhs): Something that is (or seems to be) everywhere at the same time. Why is the beetle, born 265 million years ago, still with us today? (Because its wings mutated and hardened). How did the gecko survive 160 million years? (By becoming nocturnal and developing sticky toe pads.) How did the shark and the crow and the tiny ant survive millions and millions of years? When 99 percent of all life forms on earth have become extinct, why do some survive? And survive not just in one place, but in many places: in deserts, in ice, in lakes and puddles, inside houses and forest and farmland? Just how do they become ubiquitous?

Celebrating Nature's Survivors

Ubiquitous

A celebration of canine companions in poems, prose, and pictures: “The selections are funny, adoring, exasperated, and most of all grateful” (Booklist). There’s no relationship quite like the ones we have with our dogs—dogs who befriend us; dogs who annoy, perplex, and accept us. This book explores the special bond between teenagers and their dogs—how days of crowded hallways, pointless assignments, and blinding crushes are brought to balance by our dogs. Including insightful poems by Joyce Sidman and essays in which teens speak for themselves, as well as beautiful photographs by Doug Mindell, The World According to Dog reminds us that at the end of the day, waiting at home, there is always Dog—full of hope and companionship.

Poems and Teen Voices

The World According to Dog

Discover the hidden world of the meadow in this unique combination of poetry riddles and science wisdom. Beginning with the rising sun and ending with twilight, this book takes us on a tour through the fields, encouraging us to watch for a nest of rabbits, a foamy spittlebug, a leaping grasshopper, bright milkweed, a quick fox, and a cruising hawk.

There are planes to fly and buses to catch, but a child uses the power of words, in the form of an invocation, to persuade fate to bring her family a snow day — a day slow and unhurried enough to spend at home together. In a spare text that reads as pure song and illustrations of astonishingly beautiful scratchboard art, Sidman and Krommes remind us that sometimes, if spoken from the heart, wishes really can come true.

"With magical, concise and perceptive poems, Newbery-Honor winning author Joyce Sidman captures the life of a tree frog in an intimate and moving way. A master of the science note, her fascinating sidebars help bind the twin poems together and ground our perspective. We learn how treefrogs have sticky toe pads, how they still themselves when in danger, how they can change from green to gray to camouflage themselves - even how they eat their own skins, which is full of nutrients. The narrator's connection with this small creature brings solace, comfort, and a sense of mystery"--

Dear Treefrog

Come feel the cool and shadowed breeze, come smell your way among the trees, come touch rough bark and leathered leaves: Welcome to the night. Welcome to the night, where mice stir and furry moths flutter. Where snails spiral into shells as orb spiders circle in silk. Where the roots of oak trees recover and repair from their time in the light. Where the porcupette eats delicacies—raspberry leaves!—and coos and sings. Come out to the cool, night wood, and buzz and hoot and howl—but do beware of the great horned owl—for it’s wild and it’s windy way out in the woods!

Joyce Sidman

Books

Your next favorite book is out there