Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night

Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night

Written by: Joyce Sidman
Illustrated by: Rick Allen
Genre: Poetry
Grades: 3-5
Awards: Newbery Honor

This book is a compilation of poems about active animals, trees, and the moon at night time. Some of these include snails, moths, crickets, bats, and more. Each poem has a beautiful illustration and interesting facts with it. The poems are educational and fun to read about throughout the book. The poem "Dark Emperor" describes owls perfectly. In the poem, it depicts the owl as very quiet and can hear the most quietest creature moving in the forrest. It also talks about how the owl's big eyes and movement of their heads can easily spot a prey to feast on. In "Moon's Lament," the poem explains that the things of nature at night time disappears once the sun is out. The moon expresses losing its glory and power since the day has come, but will come back again once the sun sets.

This book is great that talks about creatures being out during the night time. It gives students other options of animals that we are use to seeing during the day. This would be good for third to fifth graders to read. This would be good in a science classroom and during a lesson about animals, as it provides fun facts and illustrations to the reader.