Make the Earth your companion
(Book)

From former Children's Poet Laureate Lewis comes this tender love song to the earth, urging readers to see the gifts it offers. Bracketed by the refrain, Make the earth your companion. Walk lightly on it, as other creatures do, the book encourages humans, in single, disarmingly simple sentences, to notice and appreciate Earth's gifts. Readers are guided through different ways to draw meaning from the natural world, whether it's finding strength from the sea, perspective from the river, or peace from the woods. Matched with the text are exquisite illustrations by Italian artists (and twin sisters!) Elena and Anna Balbusso. A richly pigmented palette of golds, blues, purples, and greens, etched with filigreed silhouettes, depict feathery leaves atop trees, dense growths of brush and grass, ripples across water, scales on fish, and the rays around an owl's eyes that leave the reader with no doubt about the beauty of planet Earth. Aesthetic beauty and lyricism aside, teachers can also use this book as a mentor text to teach alliteration, imagery, personification, and metaphor.--Chaudhri, Amina Copyright 2010 Booklist

In this Earth-centered prayer, Lewis (The Navajo Code Talkers) catalogues the ways the natural world can teach humans wisdom. "Make the Earth your companion. Walk lightly on it, as other creatures do," he begins, as Art Deco-style animals parade peaceably before a backdrop of bare trees. "Learn from the sea how to face harsh forces," Lewis continues. "Let the river remind you that everything will pass. Let the lake instruct you in stillness." The Balbusso sisters convey the progression from power to stillness with quiet force: a Greek ship battles the rolling waves of the ocean, an adult and a child are carried along the river's current in a canoe, and a personified moon gazes at its reflection in a glassy lake. Elsewhere, delicate combed lines give texture to a lion's mane, trace the grain of wood, and follow the lines of bird flight. Ghostly, translucent silhouettes alternate with objects that possess volume and heft, from iris blossoms to rocky outcrops. Lewis's invocations create a sense of reverence, and their secular vocabulary makes them useful in a variety of settings. Ages 6-8. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Gr 4-6-Brief, evocative phrases invite readers to experience Earth's grandeur and to "walk lightly on it, as other creatures do." Lewis's poetic glimpses of different regions stir reflection. "Learn from the sea how to face harsh forces." Some of the allusions will be more accessible to children than others. The woodland can be "your house of peace" and the rain forest "your canopy of hope." Some suggestions are elusive. Why "meet the wetland on twilight ground"? And what might it mean to "hear the desert whisper hush to eternity"? Created by illustrators established in Italy, the sweeping computer-generated views blend realism and fantasy, illuminating the poetry with mixed results. Set in golden light, the mountains are grand, and the blue world of the penguins among ice caps evokes glistening, crystalline majesty. However, the clustered trees of the woodland have the look of a comic book creation, and the canoe passengers on the river appear to be riding through a hodgepodge of human detritus. Some views contain messy and confusing lines of scribble. Lewis moves from the world of nature to that of humans in his conclusion: "Feel the town weave a small basket of togetherness." VERDICT With a large picture book format and lofty metaphors, this title will not likely find many readers among children, yet it offers possibilities for developing classroom discussion and perhaps stimulating writing and art responses to the very timely topic of human/nature relationships.-Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A collection of poetic sentences invites listeners to observe, celebrate, and sometimes follow natural environments in specific ways. "Make the EARTH your companion. Walk lightly on it, as other creatures do." Here, graceful and elegant stylized forms of several familiar animals (rhinoceros, seal, elephant, tiger, horse) prance across the rounded edge of the planet against a deep red-orange sky. A double-page spread illustrating "Learn from the SEA how to face harsh forces" shows a sailing vessel like Odysseus' traversing dark waves under which a variety of teaming and slightly menacing sea creatures gathers. The colors throughout are intriguingly unusual, characterized by subdued hues: reds, purples, and grays. The solemn tone gives way to whimsy with this nod to lightheartedness: "Save some small piece of GRASSLAND for a red kite on a windy day," as a young white girl is carried aloft by a flying red heart. Some openings work better than others. Unlike the pages before it, "See the ICECAPS glisten with crystalline majesty" offers little more than what is stated. Human figures throughout are abstract and diminutive. Facial features are indistinct, so the use of white silhouettes seems to imply that many to most of the humans depicted are white. Distinctive and occasionally elegant, this might encourage children to offer their own meditations on how the natural world informs ways to live. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

From former Children's Poet Laureate Lewis comes this tender love song to the earth, urging readers to see the gifts it offers. Bracketed by the refrain, "Make the earth your companion. Walk lightly on it, as other creatures do," the book encourages humans, in single, disarmingly simple sentences, to notice and appreciate Earth's gifts. Readers are guided through different ways to draw meaning from the natural world, whether it's finding strength from the sea, perspective from the river, or peace from the woods. Matched with the text are exquisite illustrations by Italian artists (and twin sisters!) Elena and Anna Balbusso. A richly pigmented palette of golds, blues, purples, and greens, etched with filigreed silhouettes, depict feathery leaves atop trees, dense growths of brush and grass, ripples across water, scales on fish, and the rays around an owl's eyes that leave the reader with no doubt about the beauty of planet Earth. Aesthetic beauty and lyricism aside, teachers can also use this book as a mentor text to teach alliteration, imagery, personification, and metaphor. Copyright 2017 Booklist Reviews.

In this Earth-centered prayer, Lewis (The Navajo Code Talkers) catalogues the ways the natural world can teach humans wisdom. "Make the Earth your companion. Walk lightly on it, as other creatures do," he begins, as Art Deco–style animals parade peaceably before a backdrop of bare trees. "Learn from the sea how to face harsh forces," Lewis continues. "Let the river remind you that everything will pass. Let the lake instruct you in stillness." The Balbusso sisters convey the progression from power to stillness with quiet force: a Greek ship battles the rolling waves of the ocean, an adult and a child are carried along the river's current in a canoe, and a personified moon gazes at its reflection in a glassy lake. Elsewhere, delicate combed lines give texture to a lion's mane, trace the grain of wood, and follow the lines of bird flight. Ghostly, translucent silhouettes alternate with objects that possess volume and heft, from iris blossoms to rocky outcrops. Lewis's invocations create a sense of reverence, and their secular vocabulary makes them useful in a variety of settings. Ages 6–8. (Mar.)

Gr 4–6—Brief, evocative phrases invite readers to experience Earth's grandeur and to "walk lightly on it, as other creatures do." Lewis's poetic glimpses of different regions stir reflection. "Learn from the sea how to face harsh forces." Some of the allusions will be more accessible to children than others. The woodland can be "your house of peace" and the rain forest "your canopy of hope." Some suggestions are elusive. Why "meet the wetland on twilight ground"? And what might it mean to "hear the desert whisper hush to eternity"? Created by illustrators established in Italy, the sweeping computer-generated views blend realism and fantasy, illuminating the poetry with mixed results. Set in golden light, the mountains are grand, and the blue world of the penguins among ice caps evokes glistening, crystalline majesty. However, the clustered trees of the woodland have the look of a comic book creation, and the canoe passengers on the river appear to be riding through a hodgepodge of human detritus. Some views contain messy and confusing lines of scribble. Lewis moves from the world of nature to that of humans in his conclusion: "Feel the town weave a small basket of togetherness."