Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night

A 2011 Newbery Honor Book  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! This Newbery Honor-winning picture book combines beautifully written poetry with facts of the forest and elaborate illustrations to form a marvelously engaging collection.

The Newbery Honor winner and Sibert Medalist Joyce Sidman is today’s foremost nature poet for children. Accolades for her books include two Caldecott Honors, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Award, the Claudia Lewis Award, and many stars and best books lists. For her award-winning body of work, she won the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. She lives in Wayzata, Minnesota. Visit joycesidman.com