#12- Wings on the Wind

Wings on the Wind

Collected and Illustrated by: Kate Kiesler

Clarion Books

2002

40 pages

Poetry

I chose this book because all the poems are about birds. Another reason I liked this collection of poems is because of the pictures that illustrate the poems. The work in this book is collected from different authors on the topic of birds. Most of the poems are shorter than a page long. The poems are about different types of birds, where they live, the different seasons, the trees the birds land on, and feeding the birds.

Kate Kiesler used oil paint to create the illustrations. I noticed on the simple short poems the illustrator has the picture on the page across from the writing using the most formal text placement with spot art under the text. The poems that are longer are set up different. The write is placed around the illustration using the informal text placement. The poems that have a landscape behind them use a horizontal line. The colors that are in this collection of poetry are pale and less saturated. Cool and warm colors are used depending on the poem. The illustrator uses texture. It is easy to see the textures on the bird’s nest, the clouds, the bird’s feathers, and other places throughout the book.

This book is appropriate for children ages five and up. I would love to use this book in my classroom. You could use it to teach students about birds and about poetry. You could also teach about the different seasons and different types of birds. There are so many possibilities with this book because it is a collection of poetry. This book has not received any awards itself but the authors in this book have won numerous awards.