The Dark Emperor

Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night (Booklist Editor's Choice. Books for Youth (Awards))

Joyce Sidman 2010

illustrated by Rick Allen

There's something about a summer night.  We stay up late and listen to all the lush insect sounds, the sky gets dark and cool and everything smells sweeter.  How perfect then to sit out by the fire, or lay in bed and read such things:

Now
it is midnight,
the trilling hour,
and all I want
is to feel the thick heat
on the hard case of my body
and sing,
               sing,

Joyce Sidman writes some really wonderful poems about nighttime and the creatures that inhabit it.  No wonder this book won a Newberry award!  Each poem is accompanied by a column of information.  I even learned about trees and how they use the night to heal their bark and stretch their roots.  The block print illustrations by Rick Allen are fantastic.