Sky Words

by Marilyn Singer, Deborah Kogen Ray (Illustrator)

Whether they are revealing a small plane skywriting, noting cloud types, or describing how the sky looks as a tornado approaches, the 15 poems in this high-flying collection soar with spectacular visions of sky and weather. The glowing, full-color paintings are as evocative as the poems they complement.

Genres: Poetry, Picture Books

32 pages, Library Binding

First published March 1, 1994

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

[Megan Willome]

Sky Words Marilyn Singer

There are three poems I especially like in this children's poetry collection. Most of the poems are straight-forward, from the viewpoint of a child, but these three go just a bit farther.

"Moondog" is a whole new take on the man in the moon idea.
"Housekeeping" tells us a lot about the Mama in the poem beyond what the child observes.
And "In the City" captures something my daughter was trying to tell me about why she left the big city.

This collection draws from the Imagist poets, who taught us to stop and look closely. There is more to the world than we know, if we'll only look.

[Dolly]

Fun collection of poems that pay homage to the sky above us.