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WORK TITLE: Windsongs: Poems about Weather
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CITY: New York
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COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 372
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PERSONAL
Born in New York, NY.
EDUCATION:Queens College of the City University of New York, B.A., 1973; attended School of Visual Arts, 1976.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author, illustrator, and artist. Children’s book illustrator, 1976—, and author, 1980—. Abstract painter, exhibiting in galleries since 1985. Lecturer at elementary schools. Exhibitions: Work included in solo exhibitions at 22 Wooster Gallery, New York, NY, 1985; Condeso Lawler Gallery, New York, 1988; Yeshiva University Museum, New York, 1992; University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 2005; Penn State Harrisburg, 2013, and BravinLee programs, New York, 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014. Group exhibitions include New York State Museum at Albany, 1989; Gallery at Hastings-on-Hudson, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, 1991; Society of Illustrators—New York show, 1993; Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME, 2004; New Art Center, Newton, MA, 2007; Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY, 2012; Drawing Center, New York, 2014; and Schema Projects, Brooklyn, NY, 2016.
AWARDS:International Board on Books for Young People Honor List inclusion, 1986, for Discovering Seashells; Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children designation, National Science Teachers Association/Children’s Book Council (NSTA/CBC), 1987, for A Winter Day, and 1992, for Vegetable Garden; Parents’ Choice Award for storybook, 1991, for An Auto Mechanic; Gold Medal for poetry, National Parenting Publications Awards, 1994, Lee Bennett Hopkins Award for poetry, 1995, and Notable Book citation, American Library Association, all for Beast Feast; Parenting Reading Magic Award, 1994, for Bing Bang Boing; Claudia Lewis Award for Poetry, 2001, for Mammalabilia; Gryphon Award, Center for Children’s Books, 2004, for Bow Wow Meow Meow; Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book award, for Lizards, Frogs, and Polliwogs; named CBC Young People’s Poetry Poet, 2006; Best Children’s Books selection, Bank Street College of Education, Choices listee, Cooperative Children’s Book Council, and Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts designation, National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), all 2009, all for Dinothesaurus; NCTE Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts selection, Best Children’s Books selection, Bank Street College of Education, and NSTA/CBC Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children designation, all 2010, all for Poetrees; NCTE Notable Poetry Books selection, 2012, and Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts selection, 2013, both for UnBEElievables; 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing selection, New York Public Library, 2012, for Shiver Me Timbers!; Best Children’s Books selection, Bank Street College of Education, 2016, for both Pig Is Big on Books and How to Draw a Dragon.
WRITINGS
Contributor of illustrations to periodicals, including Across the Board, Nation, New Yorker, New York Times, and Travel & Leisure.
SIDELIGHTS
An award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books, Douglas Florian is perhaps best known for his collections of nonsense verse. The silly poems and imaginative artwork in his books Dinothesaurus: Prehistoric Poems and Paintings, Poem Depot: Aisles of Smiles, and Poem-Mobiles: Crazy Car Poems have prompted some reviewers to compare Florian to Ogden Nash, a twentieth-century writer noted for his light verse. Florian’s artwork, which combines watercolor, gouache, and collage elements, has also drawn critical praise for its vibrancy and humor.
The son of an artist, Florian decided early on to follow a similar path. At age fifteen he attended a summer painting course at New York’s School of Visual Arts and enjoyed the experience so much that he decided to make art his career. He later attended Queens College, studying under Caldecott Award-winning illustrator Marvin Bileck. At age twenty-one he saw his first drawings published in the New York Times, and he worked for magazines for several more years, despite the short turnaround times required to meet magazine deadlines.
When his illustrations for Mirra Ginsburg’s The Night It Rained Pancakes earned praise from critics, Florian turned his focus to children’s books, illustrating several other stories and producing a series of illustrated nonfiction books. After picking up a copy of Oh, That’s Ridiculous, a book of poems edited by William Cole, he was inspired to create Monster Motel: Poems and Paintings, in which his original verses about remarkable creatures are accompanied by pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations. “Similar in style to the works of Jack Prelutsky,” as Kay Weisman remarked in Booklist, Monster Motel “will make an excellent choice for youngsters.”
Florian received the prestigious Lee Bennett Hopkins Award for Beast Feast, in which alliteration and puns based on animal names invite his verses to be read out loud. His “distinctive, full-page watercolors are as playful as his verse,” wrote a Publishers Weekly reviewer, calling the book an “ideal read-aloud.” Florian followed Beast Feast with On the Wing: Bird Poems and Paintings and In the Swim: Poems and Paintings. Writing in Booklist, Carolyn Phelan claimed that the appeal of On the Wing “lies in its fluent wordplay and generous use of humor in both the poetry and the paintings.” Commenting on In the Swim, School Library Journal critic Ellen D. Warwick asserted that “what’s unusual here is the sheer, unforced playfulness, the ease and fluidity informing both verse and pictures.”
Covering everything from worms and beetles to termites and mayflies, Florian’s poems for Insectlopedia: Poems and Paintings received high praise from critics, some citing his efforts to capture the spirit of the verse in his art. “Readers may not be able to stop looking at the inventive watercolor-and-collage illustrations,” predicted a Publishers Weekly reviewer, the critic adding that Florian’s “silly, imaginative verses … (almost) match the exquisite pictures in playfulness and wit.”
Creatures ranging from slugs to lizards to sharp-toothed sharks make an appearance in Zoo’s Who: Poems and Paintings. Here Florian’s fans can indulge in the “simple joys of playing with language and imagery,” as a Kirkus Reviews writer maintained, and Christian Science Monitor reviewer Jenny Sawyer praised the book for its “laugh-out-loud linguistic cleverness.” Bow Wow Meow Meow: It’s Rhyming Cats and Dogs: Poems and Paintings celebrates domesticated pets and their owners. In Horn Book, Joanna Rudge Long took particular note of Florian’s illustrations here, writing that, “Luscious with offbeat color, [and] composed with wit and grace, Florian’s art not only illustrates his verse, it’s a pleasure as pure design.”
Florian looks at Brachiosaurus, Ankylosaurus, and several other prehistoric creatures in Dinothesaurus, which contains “dinophile-pleasing verses penned by a poet with a rare knack for wordplay and silly rhymes,” according to a writer for Kirkus Reviews. The artwork, created on kraft-paper bags using crayon and collage, “is gorgeous and fun,” wrote a New York Times Book Review contributor.
“A nice mix of wordplay and science,” in the words of Booklist critic Phelan, UnBEElievables: Honeybee Poems and Paintings explores such topics as bee anatomy and colony collapse disorder. According to a Kirkus Reviews contributor, here Florian “bestows yet another pleasing mix of punny poems and colorful collages that blend whimsy and fact.” Less scientific in its approach, The Wonderful Habits of Rabbits depicts bunnies engaging in a variety of playful activities, from digging holes to smelling flowers. “The energy of Florian’s verse flows from quiet to spirited and back again,” noted a Publishers Weekly reviewer.
Florian investigates the seasons in a series of books that includes Winter Eyes: Poems and Paintings. “Homespun … pictures grace each selection, frosty or cozy as the words demand,” wrote Horn Book critic Roger Sutton. Handsprings: Poems and Paintings also blends humorous verse and engaging art, prompting Booklist writer Hazel Rochman to describe it as a “winning combination of exuberance, delicacy, and messy fun.” An ode to still-warmer weather, Summersaults: Poems and Paintings brims with images of sultry days. “Each poem distils one aspect of summer life into a small, polished shell full of rich vocabulary,” noted a Kirkus Reviews writer. Regarding Autumnblings: Poems and Paintings, which rounds out Florian’s cycle of seasons, School Library Journal critic Susan Scheps cited the “childlike style of the various-sized watercolor and colored-pencil paintings” that are paired with its playful verse.
Florian depicts the marvels of the heavens in Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars: Space Poems and Paintings. “The most engaging verses … serve up planetary facts with a dose of cheeky humor,” Jessica Bruder commented in her review of this picture book for the New York Times Book Review. Here the author/illustrator incorporates rubber-stamped text and die-cut holes into his mixed-media artwork, presenting “an expansive and illuminating view of [his] subject,” as Long remarked in Horn Book.
Turning from the heavens to the earth, Poetrees offers Florian’s unique take on the banyan tree, the giant sequoia, and other firmly rooted wonders of the natural world. “The selections are accessible and concise, with child-friendly wordplay and artful design,” Marilyn Taniguchi commented in her review of Poetrees for School Library Journal.
In Laugh-eteria: Poems and Drawings the poet/illustrator takes on topics familiar to young readers, including school, dinosaurs, and eating strange foods. “Kids won’t have to force their laughter while reading Florian’s … pithy verses,” predicted a Publishers Weekly critic. In Poem Depot he offers a lighthearted look at chores, pets, sibling rivalry, book reports, and other kid-friendly subjects. “Florian’s bold, black line drawings ramp up the verbal humor,” observed Phelan, and Deborah Stevenson remarked in the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books that “Florian’s Learesque delight in wordplay and catastrophe … can still bring poetic pleasure to even poetry-averse readers.”
Florian pokes fun at scoundrels and scallywags of all sizes in Shiver Me Timbers! Pirate Poems and Paintings, which features illustrations by Robert Neubecker. Appraising this volume, Phelan applauded “the deft wordplay in the verse and droll comedy in the art.” Florian teamed with fellow wordsmith J. Patrick Lewis and artist Jeremy Holmes on Poem-Mobiles, a catalog of more than twenty wondrous vehicles, such as the Fish Car, which operates along the ocean floor, and the voracious, metal-devouring Dragonwagon. In School Library Journal, Scheps described Poem-Mobiles as “pure fanciful nonsense.”
In addition to his poetry collections, Florian has produced several original picture books. In How to Draw a Dragon he presents an “ode to creativity, imagination, and fire-breathers,” in the words of Horn Book critic Elissa Gershowitz. Told in rhyming couplets, How to Draw a Dragon provides young readers with helpful (though often silly) hints for capturing the mythological creatures on paper, noting, for instance, that dragons’ heads are bumpy and their flames are suitable for toasting marshmallows. “Gently comic in tone and with an almost hunt-and-find visual approach, this book might be meta, but it’s also just … fun,” Connie Fletcher observed in Booklist. “The illustrations, while evoking children’s own drawings and collages, are quite sophisticated in their use of texture, photo and fabric,” explained a Kirkus Reviews writer.
In Pig Is Big on Books a porker with a love of literature decides to create his own story after running out of things to read. According to a Kirkus Reviews contributor, “Florian spins a clever tale that will please both new readers and younger children just getting used to stories with a real plot.” Laura Lutz observed in the New York Times Book Review that “the art may be the true star” in Pig Is Big on Books, commenting that its “detailed yet painterly illustrations were created with gouache watercolor, colored pencil and collage on primed paper bag. The result is lovely, textured illustration that begs readers to touch the page.”
Florian collaborated with the illustrator Barbara Bakos on Bears Are Big and Flamingos Fly. In the former, pairs of animals that seem not to have any similarities are presented. Small bees are placed with large bears, tall giraffes are paired with shrews, and butterflies appear with hippos. In Flamingos Fly, Florian and Bakos present the titular birds and the way they move. The movements of other animals, including lizards, pelicans, and prairie dogs, also appear in the book. Reviewing both of the books, Kristy Pasquariello, contributor to School Library Journal, suggested: “With inviting illustrations and skillful prose, these are worthy additions to board book collections.”
The Curious Cares of Bears, illustrated by Sonia Sánchez, finds Florian presenting the lives of bears. The book is divided into sections that represent the four seasons. The bears in the volume take part in typical bear activities, such as hibernating and eating honey. However, they also build campfires and ride mountain bikes. Writing in School Library Journal, Yelena Alekseyeva-Popova described the book as “a silly romp; not a must-buy, but a fun read-aloud.”
In Pig and Cat Are Pals, written and illustrated by Florian, the title characters begin as close friends who take part in various activities together, including playing games, swimming, and painting. However, when Pig meets Dog, he becomes excited about his new friend and begins leaving Cat out. When Pig and Dog are out skateboarding, Dog sees Cat and invites him to come with them. By the book’s end, the three animals are all friends. “This short and simple story serves to enhance reader confidence with its repetition in text,” asserted Gay Lynn Van Vleck inSchool Library Journal. A Kirkus Reviews critic remarked: “Readers of all abilities will grasp the story’s happy ending.”
Florian again serves as writer and illustrator of the 2018 book Friends and Foes: Poems about Us All. This volume includes poems with the overarching theme of friendship. Sharing among friends is the topic of a poem called “Give and Take,” while ranking friendships is discussed in “You’re Not My Best Friend.” One of the illustrations depicts a friendship that slowly ends. Others show friends happily spending time together. Reviewing the book in School Library Journal, Paige Bentley-Flannery commented: “Readers will laugh, sympathize, and relate to the verse that runs an emotional gamut from loss to new beginnings.” A contributor to Kirkus Reviews suggested: “The direct, purposeful style of poetry lends itself nicely to navigating the many emotions of friendship.”
In Florian’s self-illustrated 2020 offering, Ice! Poems about Polar Life, the author examines the landscape and animals of the polar regions in a score of poems. The majority of these verses are about wildlife, including krill, seals, blue whales, emperor penguins, polar bears, the Arctic hare, and wolverine, among others. Florian also writes a poem to each of the polar regions, with introductory verses about the Arctic, Antarctica, and also one dealing with polar tundra. The poems, written in Florian’s “usual playful rhymed verse,” as Deborah Stevenson noted in Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, impart scientific knowledge about each animal’s diet, habitat, physical characteristics, as well as other special traits. These poems are partnered with a prose paragraph in smaller typeface imparting more information and facts. Writing in Booklist, Angela Leeper remarked of the accompanying artwork that “much of the humor comes from Florian’s distinctive, childlike mixed-media illustrations on paper-bag backgrounds.”
Stevenson further commented of this work: “The poetry could work as a readaloud to much younger children, while the combination of explanatory factual text and verse would work for kids flexing their nonfiction reading muscles; this could also provide a bit of breathing room in a unit on climate change.” Leeper similarly concluded: “The final poem, ‘Climate Change,’ urges young readers to care for these animals and their environments. A funny yet socially conscious collection.” Susan Lissim, writing in School Library Journal, offered further praise for Ice! commenting: “This title is a terrific example of poetry and the wonder of the natural world. Although the collection only covers the polar regions, it could be used in the classroom to write poetry, draw, and learn facts about different biomes.” Likewise, an online Kirkus Reviews critic noted of Ice! “Florian is a master of light verse with a purpose, and he matches it with art that charms. Thoughtful, fun, and delightful.” Ice! was named a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year.
(open new)Natural phenomena are again the focus of Florian’s 2024 picture book, Windsongs: Poems about Weather. The book is comprised of twenty poems, each focusing on a different aspect of the weather. Some weather elements are personified, as in a poem about clouds. The cloud in the poem expresses pleasure in ruining people’s plans. Meanwhile, poems about hurricanes and tornadoes are formatted to reflect the real shapes of those phenomena. Florian also uses puns and alliteration to add interest to the poems. In a poem on hail, a meteorologist is surprised when the hail abruptly arrives on a day that was forecasted to be sunny. Other weather elements discussed in the book include frost, fog, rain, lightning, and drought. It ends with a mention of climate change and an encouragement to take care of the environment on Earth. The book includes a glossary, in which weather elements are described in more detail. Reviewing the volume in Booklist, John Peters described it as “a brisk, breezy sampler; the forecast calls for repeat readings.” Mary Lanni, writer in School Library Journal, called it “a unique and accessible title that helps young children connect to weather in a foundational and introductory manner.” A Kirkus Reviews critic noted that it offered “appealing information in a delightfully sunny package.” (close new)
Discussing the relationship between his art and his poems, Florian told Book Links interviewer Anne Davies that “the words and images must be married to each other, and yet each should be able to stand on its own as an integral work. The art has to have a life of its own and not merely illustrate. I’ve always felt a great illustration can make a good poem even better. That’s the advantage I have in illustrating my own work—I have the freedom to leap far from the poem.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Book Links, May, 2006, Anne Davies, interview with Florian.
Booklist, March 15, 1993, Kay Weisman, review of Monster Motel: Poems and Paintings, p. 1351; September 15, 1993, Carolyn Phelan, review of A Painter; March 15, 1996, Carolyn Phelan, review of On the Wing: Bird Poems and Paintings, p. 1258; March 15, 1998, Carolyn Phelan, review of Insectlopedia: Poems and Paintings, p. 1240; March 15, 1999, Carolyn Phelan, review of Laugh-eteria: Poems and Drawings, p. 1340; March 15, 2000, Gillian Engberg, interview with Florian, p. 1382; March 15, 2000, John Peters, review of Mammalabilia: Poems and Paintings, p. 1380; September 15, 2000, Carolyn Phelan, review of A Pig Is Big, p. 247; April 1, 2002, Gillian Engberg, review of Summersaults: Poems and Paintings, p. 1330; February 1, 2003, Gillian Engberg, review of Bow Wow Meow Meow: It’s Raining Cats and Dogs: Poems and Paintings, p. 994; August, 2003, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of Autumnblings: Poems and Paintings, p. 1985; October 15, 2004, Diane Foote, review of Omnibeasts: Animal Poems and Paintings, p. 407; March 15, 2005, Ilene Cooper, review of Zoo’s Who: Poems and Paintings, p. 1290; March 15, 2006, Hazel Rochman, review of Handsprings: Poems and Paintings, p. 48; April 1, 2007, Carolyn Phelan, review of Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars: Space Poems and Paintings, p. 50; April 1, 2012, Carolyn Phelan, review of UnBEElievables: Honeybee Poems and Paintings, p. 43; May 1, 2012, Carolyn Phelan, review of Poem Runs: Baseball Poems and Paintings, p. 96; September 15, 2012, Carolyn Phelan, review of Shiver Me Timbers! Pirate Poems and Paintings, p. 62; December 15, 2013, Daniel Kraus, review of Poem-Mobiles: Crazy Car Poems, p. 37; March 15, 2014, Carolyn Phelan, review of Poem Depot: Aisles of Smiles, p. 67; November 1, 2014, Lolly Gepson, review of I Love My Hat, p. 60; March 15, 2015, Connie Fletcher, review of How to Draw a Dragon, p. 77; January 1, 2016, Edie Ching, review of The Wonderful Habits of Rabbits, p. 102; November 1, 2020, Angela Leeper, review of Ice! Poems about Polar Life, p. 48; March 1, 2022, John Peters, review of Zoobilations!, p. 39; May 1, 2024, John Peters, review of Windings: Poems about Weather, p. 42.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, May, 2002, review of Summersaults, p. 322; May, 2005, review of Zoo’s Who, p. 381; April, 2003, review of Bow Wow Meow Meow, p. 312; September, 2003, Deborah Stevenson, review of Autumnblings, p. 13; March, 2006, April Spisak, review of Handsprings, p. 311; June, 2014, Deborah Stevenson, review of Poem Depot, p. 517; June, 2015, Deborah Stevenson, review of How to Draw a Dragon, p. 488; December, 2015, Jeannette Hulick, review of Pig Is Big on Books, p. 197; December, 2020, Deborah Stevenson, review of Ice! Poems about Polar Life, p. 169.
Christian Science Monitor, November 15, 2005, Jenny Sawyer, review of Zoo’s Who, p. 16.
Horn Book, July, 1997, Roger Sutton, review of In the Swim: Poems and Paintings, p. 470; November, 1999, Roger Sutton, review of Winter Eyes: Poems and Paintings, p. 752; March, 2000, review of Mammalabilia, p. 204; May, 2001, Martha V. Parravano, review of Lizards, Frogs, and Polliwogs: Poems and Paintings, p. 342; July-August, 2002, Joanna Rudge Long, review of Summersaults, p. 478; May-June, 2003, Joanna Rudge Long, review of Bow Wow Meow Meow, p. 363; November-December, 2003, Joanna Rudge Long, review of Autumnblings, p. 759; May-June, 2005, Martha V. Parravano, review of Zoo’s Who, p. 336; March-April, 2006, Joanna Rudge Long, review of Handsprings, p. 201; May-June, 2007, Joanna Rudge Long, review of Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars, p. 296; March-April, 2010, Joanna Rudge Long, review of Poetrees, p. 79; March-April, 2012, Joanna Rudge Long, review of UnBEElievables, p. 125; July-August, 2014, Susan Dove Lempke, review of Poem Depot, p. 112; March-April, 2015, Elissa Gershowitz, review of How to Draw a Dragon, p. 76.
Horn Book Guide, fall, 2014, Patricia Riley, review of Poem-Mobiles, p. 189; spring, 2016, Nell Beram, review of Pig Is Big on Books, p. 55.
Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 1983, review of People Working; April 15, 1994, review of Beast Feast; March 1, 2002, review of Summersaults, p. 333; March 15, 2003, review of Bow Wow Meow Meow, p. 466; July 15, 2003, review of Autumnblings, p. 963; April 1, 2005, review of Zoo’s Who, p. 416; February 15, 2006, review of Handsprings, p. 182; March 15, 2007, review of Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars; January 15, 2009, review of Dinothesaurus: Prehistoric Poems and Paintings; February 15, 2010, review of Poetrees; January 15, 2012, review of UnBEElievables; December 15, 2013, review of Poem Depot; October 1, 2014, review of I Love My Hat; February 1, 2015, review of How to Draw a Dragon; July 15, 2015, review of Pig Is Big on Books; December 1, 2015, review of The Wonderful Habits of Rabbits; January 15, 2018, review of Pig and Cat Are Pals; June 15, 2018, review of Friends and Foes: Poems about Us All; March 15, 2024, review of Windsongs.
New York Times, November 21, 1999, Tiana Norgren, review of Winter Eyes, p. 41; November 19, 2000, Cynthia Zarin, review of Mammalabilia, p. 46; December 3, 2000, Allison Steele, review of A Pig Is Big, p. 85; June 4, 2010, Roberta Smith, “Douglas Florian: Letting in the Light,” p. C28.
New York Times Book Review, June 3, 2007, Jessica Bruder, review of Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars, p. 34; March 15, 2009, review of Dinothesaurus, p. 13; August 23, 2015, Laura Lutz, review of Pig Is Big on Books, p. 26.
Publishers Weekly, April 1, 1983, review of People Working, p. 60; March 7, 1994, review of Beast Feast; March 9, 1998, review of Insectlopedia, pp. 69-70; April 19, 1999, review of Laugh-eteria, p. 73; March 13, 2000, review of Mammalabilia, p. 84; October 9, 2000, review of A Pig Is Big, p. 87; March 12, 2001, review of Lizards, Frogs, and Polliwogs, p. 90; April 29, 2002, review of Summersaults, p. 70; February 10, 2003, review of Bow Wow Meow Meow, p. 187; June 30, 2003, review of Autumnblings, p. 77; January 19, 2009, review of Dinothesaurus, p. 60; February 9, 2015, review of How to Draw a Dragon, p. 65; November 23, 2015, review of The Wonderful Habits of Rabbits, p. 67.
School Library Journal, August, 1982, Mary B. Nickerson, review of The City, p. 96; June, 1993, Lauralyn Persson, review of Monster Motel; May, 1994; Lee Bock, review of Beast Feast; September, 1994, Tom S. Hurlburt, review of A Fisher, p. 207; November, 1994, Kathleen Whalin, review of Bing Bang Boing: Poems and Drawings; May, 1997, Ellen D. Warwick, review of In the Swim, p. 119; April, 1998, Carolyn Angus, review of Insectlopedia, pp. 115-116; June, 1999, Barbara Chatton, review of Laugh-eteria, p. 114; September, 1999, Shawn Brommer, review of Winter Eyes, p. 212; April, 2000, Barbara Chatton, review of Mammalabilia, p. 119; April, 2001, Nina Lindsay, review of Lizards, Frogs, and Polliwogs, p. 129; May, 2003, Susannah Price, review of Bow Wow Meow Meow, p. 136; October, 2003, Susan Scheps, review of Autumnblings, p. 149; October, 2004, Lee Bock, review of Omnibeasts, p. 140; April, 2005, Margaret Bush, review of Zoo’s Who, p. 122; April, 2006, Kirsten Cutler, review of Handsprings, p. 124; May, 2009, Julie Roach, review of Dinothesaurus, p. 94; February, 2010, Marilyn Taniguchi, review of Poetrees, p. 99; February, 2012, Margaret Bush, review of UnBEElievables, p. 101; March, 2012, Donna Cardon, review of Poem Runs, p. 142; February, 2014, Magdaline Henderson-Diman, review of Poem Depot, p. 119, and Susan Scheps, review of Poem-Mobiles, p. 120; November, 2014, Catherine Callegari, review of I Love My Hat, p. 83; May, 2015, Kristine M. Casper, review of How to Draw a Dragon, p. 84; December, 2015, Lisa Lehmuller, review of The Wonderful Habits of Rabbits, p. 88, and Linda Ludke, review of Pig Is Big on Books, p. 98; December, 2016, Kristy Pasquariello, review of Bears Are Big, p. 89; July, 2017, Yelena Alekseyeva-Popova, review of The Curious Cares of Bears, p. 55; February, 2018, Gay Lynn Van Vleck, review of Pig and Cat Are Pals, p. 68; July, 2018, Paige Bentley-Flannery, review of Friends and Foes, p. 97; vol. 66, no. 12, 2020, Susan Lissim review of Ice! Poems about Polar Life, p. 108; April, 2024, Mary Lanni, review of Windsongs, p. 150.
ONLINE
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, http://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/puboff/bccb/ (July 7, 2001), Deborah Stevenson, “True Blue: Douglas Florian.”
Douglas Florian website, http://www.douglasflorian.com (February 3, 2021).
Kirkus Reviews, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/ (October 123, 2020), review of Ice! Poems about Polar Life.
IllustratorAuthor.com, http://illustratorauthor.com/ (September 26, 2018), article by author.
Poetry Foundation website, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/ (November 4, 2024), author profile.
Seven Impossible Things before Breakfast Blog, http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/ (April 6, 2009), interview with Florian.
Artist and poet Douglas Florian was born and raised in New York City, and educated at Queens College and the School of Visual Art. Florian was a cartoonist for the New Yorker before a chance encounter with William Cole’s anthology of children’s verse, Oh, That’s Ridiculous (1977), inspired him to try his hand at the art.
Florian’s illustrated poetry books for children often incorporate elements of collage, watercolor, and gouache on a surface of primed paper bags. He frequently takes the natural world as his subject, using wordplay, neologisms, rhyme, and humor to engage young readers. In a BookPage interview with Heidi Henneman, Florian spoke of the linguistic and syntactic pliability his poems flex, noting "poetry is not black and white. It is more like the gray and purple area that connects all the things we live in."
Since 1980, Florian has written and illustrated dozens of books of children’s poetry, including Poetrees (2010); Dinothesaurus (2009), a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year, a Horn Book Fanfare List selection and a Junior Library Guild selection; Lizards, Frogs and Polliwogs (2005), a Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book; and Gryphon Award-winner and Parents Magazine Best Book of the Year Bow Wow Meow Meow (2003).
Florian’s abstract paintings have been exhibited in numerous solo and group shows, several of which have been favorably reviewed in the New Yorker and the New York Times.
Florian lives in New York City with his family.
QUOTED: "a brisk, breezy sampler; the forecast calls for repeat readings."
Windsongs: Poems about Weather. By Douglas Florian. Illus. by the author. May 2024. 48p. Simon & Schuster/Beach Lane, $18.99 (9781665937726). K-Gr. 3. 551.
Being, as usual, both clever and informative, Florian sprinkles this quick summer shower of verses on weather-related topics with playfully delivered truisms ("Lightning is frightening!") and facts, adding more expansive comments in a prose glossary at the end. "Weather describes our atmosphere. / Like whether it's cloudy, / or whether it's clear," he begins, then goes on in short, sometimes shaped poems laced with wordplay to celebrate atmospheric phenomena, from clouds and fog to hail and hurricanes: "It's reigning rain! A hurricane!" On painted paper bags he depicts children in raincoats, a muscular sun, storms and snowflakes, a distinctly windswept dog, meteorologists posing with the tools of their trade, and, opposite a last cautionary stanza on climate change ("Mars is too cold, and Venus too hot. / Our blue planet Earth is all that we've got"), a trio of young eco-activists working together to hold up a globe. A brisk, breezy sampler; the forecast calls for repeat readings. --John Peters
YA Recommendations
Adult titles recommended for teens are marked with the following symbols: YA, for books of general YA interest; YA/C, for books with particular curricular value; and YA/S, for books that will appeal most to teens with a special interest in a specific subject.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 American Library Association
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Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Peters, John. "Windsongs: Poems about Weather." Booklist, vol. 120, no. 17, 1 May 2024, p. 42. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A804016084/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=7284733a. Accessed 16 Sept. 2024.
QUOTED: "appealing information in a delightfully sunny package."
Florian, Douglas WINDSONGS Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster (Children's None) $18.99 5, 28 ISBN: 9781665937726
In 20 expertly crafted poems, Florian illuminates the origins, types, and effects of weather.
Beginning with scene-setters about weather and our atmosphere and ending with a sober look at climate change, the veteran poet-illustrator riffs, often gleefully, on elements from rain and hail to frost and drought. He frequently uses personification, alliteration, and repetition, encapsulating solid information in economical rhymes and deft wordplay. "Cloud" narrates its own delight in "wrecking" the reader's fun: "I rain cascades / on your parades. / To nip your nap / I thunderclap." Maintaining that "fog is just / a cloud that's lost," Florian describes how "it drifted down, / close to the ground, / then napped beside a hill. / And gave the day / ten shades of gray, / each un-fog-gettable." Poems often take concrete forms, spiraling in "Hurricane" and assuming the shape of a funnel for "Tornado." The text appears on pages of saturated color, opposite playful illustrations executed in gouache, colored pencil, and rubber stamps on primed paper bags. Humans vary in skin tone and cavort (and contort) in service of Florian's visual jokes. For "Hurricane," an umbrella-wielding person's yellow slicker spirals round and round, echoing that poem's shape. A "never ever wrong" meteorologist stands before a weather map, staring in shock at the barrage of hailstones despoiling a sunny forecast. In an image accompanying the last poem, three people--wearing caps that warn against damaging greenhouse pollutants--hold up our sea-blue planet.
Appealing information in a delightfully sunny package. (glossary, weather websites, selected sources and further reading) (Picture book/poetry. 5-9)
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"Florian, Douglas: WINDSONGS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A786185670/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=0f8002aa. Accessed 16 Sept. 2024.
QUOTED: "a unique and accessible title that helps young children connect to weather in a foundational and introductory manner."
FLORIAN, Douglas. Windsongs: Poems About Weather. illus. by Douglas Florian. 48p. S. & S./Beach Lane. May 2024. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9781665937726.
PreS-Gr 1--This nonfiction picture book blends the beauty of weather with the elegance of poetry through its unique and memorable style. Each spread features a different element of weather, including types of storms, instruments used to measure weather, and more. The verses all vary in style, incorporating some rhymes and visual stylings to connect the words with their topics of focus. Many poem selections resemble a weather type, such as a spiral for a hurricane and lightning emerging from a cloud. These artistic choices serve the dual purpose of introducing children to the varied ways in which poetry can be created, as well as providing readers with a memorable way of recognizing weather features. Facing each poem is an accompanying illustration that embraces childlike art, using visible pencil lines, asymmetrical imagery, and muted hues. Together, the text and pictures make the concept of weather accessible to a very young audience, especially when used to teach about weather for the first time. A glossary provides more detailed information about each featured weather type, enhancing the learning that can happen thanks to this book. VERDICT A unique and accessible title that helps young children connect to weather in a foundational and introductory manner.--Mary Lanni
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Lanni, Mary. "FLORIAN, Douglas. Windsongs: Poems About Weather." School Library Journal, vol. 70, no. 4, Apr. 2024, p. 150. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A790645195/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a135bc5c. Accessed 16 Sept. 2024.
Zoobilations! By Douglas Florian. Illus. by the author. Mar. 2022. 48p. Simon & Schuster/Beach Lane, $17.99 (9781534465909). K-Gr. 3. 811.
The latest offering from the grizzled wizard of wordplay presents 20 creatures, from llamas, who "llove to graze on grass" and "have a llot of mass," to giraffes that "eat the leaves / of tallest trees / most all giraffe-ternoon." In verses running from just a couplet to a dozen or so lines each, Florian intersperses snippets of natural history with imaginative flights of fancy, putting centipedes and millipedes on bicycles to admire how fast they "centi-pedal," or setting an unhappy circus elephant to dreams of flying in "ele-fantasies." The poems are paired with likewise freewheeling portraits that treat viewers to sights ranging from a naked mole rat trying on a pair of shorts to a hammerhead shark pounding nails into a board, all rendered in scribbly preschooler style (though he does stay inside the lines, barely) with crayons or pastels on paper bags. It's beastly fun, as usual, whether read silently or bellowed aloud.--John Peters
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 American Library Association
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MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Peters, John. "Zoobilations!" Booklist, vol. 118, no. 13, 1 Mar. 2022, p. 39. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A697176945/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=0a7f79e1. Accessed 16 Sept. 2024.