Central Heating: Poems About Fire and Warmth

by Marilyn Singer

As a companion volume to her poetry collections about earth and about water, Marilyn Singer now examines the nature of fire, an overlooked subject in the realms of poetry. From forest fires and prairie fires to the fires on backyard grills; from chili peppers to birthday candles; to jack-o-lanterns, menorahs, Christmas lights, and holidays around the earth; to dragons who provide their own central heating—these lyrical poems present a fresh and insightful view of fire of all kinds. Meilo So combines strong linocut art with her signature brushwork in striking illustrations reproduced in fire-red.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Picture Books

48 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Marilyn Singer was born in the Bronx (New York City) on October 3, 1948 and lived most of her early life in N. Massapequa (Long Island), NY. She attended Queens College, City University of New York, and for her junior year, Reading University, England. She holds a B.A. in English from Queens and an M.A. in Communications from New York University.

In 1974, after teaching English in New York City high schools for several years, she began to write - initially film notes, catalogues, teacher's guides and film strips. Then, one day, when she was sitting in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, she penned a story featuring talking insect characters she'd made up when she was eight. Encouraged by the responses she got, she wrote more stories and in 1976 her first book, The Dog Who Insisted He Wasn't, was published by E.P.Dutton & Co.

Since then, Marilyn has published over seventy books for children and young adults. Her genres are many and varied, including realistic novels, fantasies, non-fiction, fairy tales, picture books, mysteries and poetry. She likes writing many different kinds of books because it's challenging and it keeps her from getting bored. She has won several Children's Choice and Parents' Choice Awards, as well as the following: the Creature Carnival, Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor Book, 2005; I Believe in Water: Twelve Brushes with Religion, New York Public Library's "Best Books for the Teen Age," 2001; Stay True: Short Stories for Strong Girls, Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, 2000 (YALSA); On the Same Day in March, Booklist's Top Ten Science Books of 2000; NCSS-CBC Notable Book, 2000; Deal with a Ghost, finalist, YA category, Edgar Award, 1998; It Can't Hurt Forever, Maud Hart Lovelace Award, 1983; The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth, ALA Best Book for Young Adults, 1983; Turtle in July, NCTE Notable, N.Y.Times Best Illustrated and Time Magazine Best Children's Books of 1989; Turtle in July was also a Reading Rainbow review book.

Marilyn currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband Steve; their standard poodle Oggi, a cousin of their beloved and recently departed poodle Easy, seen in the home page photo; a cat named August ; two collared doves named Jubilee and Holiday; and a starling named Darling. Her interests include dog training, reading, hiking, bird-watching, gardening, meditation, playing computer adventure games and going to the movies and the theatre. She's also a major Star Trek fan.

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Upper elementary level poems. I read it for National Poetry Month, was drawn to it by the title, but I wasn't that drawn to the poems themselves, which include poems on everything she could think of to write about with fire as the topic: Forges, firefighters, chili peppers, the sun, prairie fires, dragons, and so on. That's a cool idea for kids, but it didn't take off with mine (or me). I found just okay the sketchy all red block print illustrations by Meilo So. The lovely multi-colored cover, like the title, promises more than it delivers.

[Xiaoxiao Zhu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Surrounding fire and warmth, the author write a series poems on some persons, some things and some events. Also, this book is full of red pictures and words. In traditional aspect, red is the symbol of fire and warmth. But as far as I'm concerned, red words in this book look a little bit horrible because blood is also red and blood sometimes has no temprature.

There is no denying that fire can bring people warmth, but sometimes it also brings us misfortune such as fire disasters. These misfortune will bring people so much loss, for example, a fire can take away our relatives, our wealth and even our home. So be careful about fire though we enjoy our birthday, our fesitivals with fire and warmth.

The seventh poetry --- Dragon recalled me the Chinese tradition. Every Spring Festival, people need to perform dragon dance and all of the dragon are red which represents happiness, celebration and everything goes well next year.And acutually, in China, red is the most important color in everyone's mind.

[Christine Jensen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Approximate Interest Level/Reading Level: Upper Elementary

Format: Picture Book/Themed

Awards: ALA Notable Books for Children (2006)


With text and illustrations all in red, the collection of poems are themed around all things fiery and warm, from birthday candles to dragons to burning landmarks to toasting marshmallows. From the opening poem, “Fire has contradiction its heart.”

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short book of poetry discusses fire and warmth. When writing about a dragon the author ends the poem with, "...To snuggle in a pleasant cave where you're the central heating?" Clever poems.