Melinda Szymanik, The Song of the Kauri, illustrated by Dominique Ford, Scholastic, 2014
This book has a beautiful cover in orange and browns with a shiny embossed koru that you can trace with your finger and feel its smoothness.
This is how the story begins: ‘Once upon a time, when the land was new, and time and memory were just beginning, a giant began to grow out of the rich earth.’
This a beautiful sentence– simple but full of possibilities.
The sentence leads you into the story of a kauri. The sun knew what it was good at. The moon knew what it was good at. And the kauri just kept growing and growing as the world kept changing and changing.
The story is simple, poetic and important. It makes you think about the place of things in the world by showing us what they do. It never preaches or shouts messages. It just tells a story using sentences that have been lovingly cared for.
And it has gorgeous illustrations — these too have been lovingly cared for. This is a book you should hunt down when it comes out in early July. It has been crafted with love by the author, the illustrator and the publishing team at Scholastic. I just adore it! I am sure it will become one of New Zealand’s best loved books!
You could try writing a story poem about a tree. Find the book first and read it and then have a go at a poem. Make you tree come alive on the page with great detail. Where is your tree? What happens to your tree? You might to do a bit of research. You might need to use your imagination.
DEADLINE for your Story-Poem Challenge: Wednesday June 4th
Send to paulajoygreen@gmail.com. Include your name, year, age and name of school. You can include your teacher’s name and email. PLEASE say it’s for the Story-Poem challenge.
I will post my favourites and have a book prize for some poets.
