WINTER BEES & OTHER POEMS OF THE COLD by Joyce Sidman. Illus. by Rick Allen. HoughtonMifflin Harcourt:  2014. 32p. ISBN 978-0547-906508 hc. $17.99   Gr. 3-6    E PIC

WINTER BEES & OTHER POEMS OF THE COLD by Joyce Sidman is a collection of winter poems featuring the plant and animal wildlife found in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.  Some of the animals featured are:  chickadee, wolf, raven, moose, beaver, honey bee, and garter snake.  Each memorable nature poem is accompanied by an informational paragraph about the featured animal on the facing page.  Sidman teamed up with illustrator, Rick Allen, for Winter Bees.  The illustrations are composed of linoleum block printing that was digitally scanned and layered to join old and new art methods into eye-catching and anatomically correct nature spreads.  Sidman has written several books of poetry with a nature theme, earning Newbery Honors for DARK EMPORER AND OTHER POEMS OF THE NIGHT (2011), Caldecott Honors for RED SINGS FROM THE TREETOPS with illustrator Pamela Zagarenski  (2010), and Caldecott Honors for SONG OF THE WATER BOATMAN with illustrator Beckie Prange (2006).

Lynette Suckow, Superiorland Preview Center, Marquette, MI