Newberry Honor Book

Title: Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night

Author: Joyce Sidman

Illustrator: Rick Allen

Grade Level: Ages 4 to 8

-This book is perfect for these ages because if the students are younger, they can have the book read to them and still be able to comprehend the text and language while using the great illustrations to help them understand. If the students are older, they should be able to read the story to themselves or aloud to the class. This book uses simplistic text so the students wouldn't get stuck while reading. There is also an informative section per poem that informs the students about factual information for each subject throughout the book.

Summary: In this book, the reader is taken on a journey through different poems as the author explains her exploration of nature at night. Each page displays a different poem focusing on the animals of the night, what they do at night, and what other things you might find if you are out at that time. With each set of pages, the book is set to provide the reader with an enjoyable poem, a beautifully illustrated image of the night, and a paragraph of factual information about the featured subject. In this book of poems, the illustrations are bold and extremely detailed that lend to the explanation of the subject.

Strategies for the Classroom: This book would be perfect in the classroom during a Science lesson or Literature lesson. For a Science lesson, the book could be used as a supplement to teaching students about the animals of the night. Having the students read the poems about the different animals and adventures of the night could help to reinforce what they have learned about nocturnal animals while providing a fun alternative to reading mundane, textbook information. The additional factual information provided is also of great help in explaining key ideas while the illustrations help the students visualize what they are learning about. For a Literature lesson, this book could be perfect for teaching students how to read because the layout of the poems allows for the students to chunk words together and begin to understand the text and read fluently which would lead to overall comprehension. The book could be used as a class with the teacher reading aloud to the students and possibly having them choral read as well. Or students could pair up together and read the book to one another or together. This book allows for so many different options and can be used multiple ways in the classroom and with different subjects.

ESOL Strategies: Depending on the students level of proficiency, this book could be extremely useful or not be appropriate for an ESOL student. If the ESOL student is still at a lower level of proficiency, they will most likely not be able to read this story or comprehend the subject matter if a teacher or classmate were to read it to them. To help with this, the use of illustrations could be used to help the students understand the text. This could either come in the form of providing visuals as your read the poems or allowing the students to draw pictures to help them understand the vocabulary and subject matter. It could also be beneficial To help ESOL students, you could also focus on repetition by having the poems read repeatedly or have the students read them repeatedly if possible. This repetition benefits the students by providing them with consistent practice in reading or listening and understanding the text. Repetition also helps with fluency which would be beneficial in helping the students practice and improve their English.

Read Aloud: For this book, I would focus on reading aloud poems that pertain to maybe a subject that is being taught that day or week, especially if you are incorporating the poems with other subjects like science. In introducing the book to the students, I would read aloud the very first poem to give the students an idea of what each poem is going to be set-up as as well as to give the students an idea of the use of the illustrations throughout the book and the provided factual information that help explain the story.

Personal Opinion: I really enjoyed reading this poem book because the poems were simple enough to be able to understand and comprehend the information they were focused on. I loved the use of the visuals to help tell the story as well as the provided factual information that supported what was read as well as to provide more information for the reader.