SHARING THE SEASONS

Cheery, upbeat and accessible—and lovely to boot. Veteran poet and anthologist Hopkins makes good choices among contemporary poets young readers might recognize—Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Marilyn Singer, April Halprin Wayland, to name a few—and a few older names, such as Carl Sandburg and William Shakespeare. The brief (none longer than two pages and some only a few lines) poems are grouped by season, and each gets a page of Diaz’s astonishing illustrations. They pulse with color, leaping off the page. His signature use of pattern echoes Mexican pottery or silhouette, always in mouthwatering incandescent colors that shade into one another. “Winter tames man, woman and beast” says Shakespeare; Anonymous writes of finding a shady spot in “August Heat”: “And sit— / And sit— / And sit— / And sit!” Prince Redcloud makes a shaped autumn poem called “After,” and Elizabeth Upton, in “Summer Sun,” speaks in the sun’s voice: “I linger in the evening / so they can / skip, hop, race / play ball / eat Popsicles…” Good all year round. (Poetry. 7-12)