Wild Wings

by Jane Yolen, Jason Stemple (Photographer)

Boyds Mills Press publishes a wide range of high-quality fiction and nonfiction picture books, chapter books, novels, and nonfiction

Genres: Poetry, Picture Books, Birds, Childrens, Nature

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Jane Yolen is a novelist, poet, fantasist, journalist, songwriter, storyteller, folklorist, and children’s book author who has written more than three hundred books. Her accolades include the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, the World Fantasy Award, three Mythopoeic Awards, the Kerlan Award, two Christopher Awards, and six honorary doctorate degrees from colleges and universities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Born and raised in New York City, the mother of three and the grandmother of six, Yolen lives in Massachusetts and St. Andrews, Scotland.

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not uniformly great, but there are some very good poems. The photos are fine though nothing special in my opinion.

Wilson's Warbler

As if sunshine
fell down on a branch,
then gathered itself together
for one solid moment,
the warbler brightens spring.

[Selena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Descriptions of birds and their characteristics or habitats in the form of poetry.

[Jeimy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the pictures and the poems.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poetry about birds accompanied by gorgeous photographs.

[Aska]

Wild Wings stood out to me from the collection of books the librarian brought to me from the poetry section. I think it’s because of the real photographs that were used instead of illustration. Jane Yolan used photographs of birds that were taken by her son who is a professional photographer. She received these photographs from her son and instantly thought of creating poems for each. She used these photos to help her inspire the minute-to-minute mundane activity that we take for granted. I don’t see birds the way Jason captured them with his camera or the way Jane captured it’s movement with her words. Through her poems, I was able to understand what she saw. Many poets uses paintings and photos as an inspiration. I think for Jane Yolen these photographs of birds spoke to them. Maybe because she is a writer and a poet, that’s her form of expression. Another book that comes to mind is Paint Me a Poem, Poems Inspired by Masterpieces of Art by Justine Rowden. The author uses famous painting from National Gallery in Washington DC to inspire her poems.
Good poetry “expands people’s consciousness of their minute to minute experience” (Chapter 6, Poetry For Children, Page 170) and I felt that this book, Wild Wings, spoke out to me because Jane Yolen used that experience to reach out to its audience. It reminds us how fascinating life could be if we spend a little longer admiring what surrounds us. Jane Yolen used vivid imagery to expand our imagination to share her experience with this engaging book. She captures the moment with her gift of words to lends us a hand in experiencing the true wonder she sees in birds. She uses simile, metaphor and word play to capture readers’ attention. Her use of metaphor in describing the warbler as “sunshine” (pg. 11) or and vulture as “angel” (pg. 13) gives us a glimpse of how she sees these birds. The use of imagery is evident throughout the book. She is brilliant when it comes to comparing the birds to everyday objects. She described anhinga after swimming as “wet shirt” on an “invisible line” (pg. 14). I see that! I was delighted to see the world in her eyes. It made me see things I couldn’t see before.
She uses different types of poems. She uses concrete poem to capture the shape of egret (pg.7) sitting and haiku to describe the swallows (pg. 18).

They decorated trees,
White breasts candled from within:
Ornaments of spring.

Like many haiku, she uses her keen observation to compare swallows to “ornaments” for the trees but for spring time. I would have never thought of that! But after reading her poem, I can see those cute little birds on a tree as “ornaments” that decorate the bare tree. It symbolizes spring is near.
For the poem of brother hawk, she uses dialogue by asking “why” questions to personify the birds as it answers back. (pg. 23)
Even though like many poetry books I own, it’s based on theme, this book is different. It’s not humorous like other poetry by Shel Silverstein or of familiar experience. However, children can relate and enjoy photographs of birds. This is a greta book to introduce different types of poems written by the same author. Students can see that all poems do not have to rhyme or use alliteration. It can, of course, but it’s not limited too. It’s a great to use as mentor text after they pick a topic. “See, even if you are writing about cars, there’s different things you can write about and different ways! Just like Jane Yolen did!”. It also shows students that inspiration is everywhere. Just like the photographs she received from her son, maybe they can find inspiration from what they already have.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jane Yolen and her son, Jason Stemple, have collaborated on a nice collection of poetry about birds, combining her poems with his photos.

I loved the introduction that explains their fascination with birds and her desire to create poetry inspired by his pictures. I also appreciated that the photos have a small bit of information about the bird, as well as the poem.

It's a quick read and is fun to read aloud. We've read a few of the books they've collaborated on together (A Mirror to Nature: Poems About Reflection and Birds of a Feather) and we've really liked them. We enjoyed reading this book together.

[Courtney Raymer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Personal Response: Before this class I never knew you could take real life things such as animals and make poems about them. This book does a great job of it and it introduces some birds that young children may not know which is nice. The poems are short and simple and get the point across which is good for young children. This is a lyric poem because it focuses on nature.

Purpose:
-curriculum: This book is good for a unit on birds that you might be doing in the classroom. It gives poems about each animal and after the poem it gives a few sentences on facts that would be useful to a student. The pictures aren't drawn they were actually photographed so the students can actually see what the birds would look like in their habitat.
-rhyme: In some of the poems there are rhymes which will help children learn easy ways to rhyme words and how to point out rhyming words.

[Hend Alalwani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Age range: 3-7

I liked this book because it has several poems about different types of birds. I will read this for children because they will be able to learn about different kinds of birds that exist in the world.

I like the images in it because it shows what features each bird has that make it different than the others. Also, I like when the author wrote under each poem in the corner of the page some information about the bird; for example, “ the Anhinga is a common bird found in freshwater swamps, marshes, ponds, and lakes. A fish eater, it often swims with only its snaky neck and head exposed.”

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a poetry collection written by Jane Yolen based on bird photographs by her son, Jason Stemple. Beneath each poem is a small paragraph that includes facts about the photographed bird. It's a simple collection that is relatively easy to understand. Since it is Jane Yolen, this is well written. The photographs are interesting and the whole collection is a nice, quick read.

[Deanna Mcdonough]

Wild Wings take real photos and puts poems to them. The poems are moderateraly easily. A young reader could read this easily. Poems, I always feel should be discused in class. Most children really don't understand the ryhming and methiphores that poems often have.

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again her son took the pictures of the birds. Especially cool to stare at a hummingbird up close.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely short poems describing a number of different birds. With stunning photos by the author's son.

[Stacy]

Wild wings combines beautiful wildlife photos with poems about birds.

[Heid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nature and Soaring High

[Brittany Hailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would use this book in a poetry lesson or to teach students about birds.