#13 Swirl by Swirl

Title: Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature

Author: Joyce Sidman

Illustrator: Beth Krommes

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

Copyright: 2011

Pages:  32

Genre/Category:  Poetry

I chose this book because I really liked the illustrations and the poetry is simple. The illustrations are bold and colorful. The book is one poem about swirls found in nature. It talks about different animals, plants, and things around us that have swirls. At the end of the book, there are facts about the different animals, plants, and things in the world that were mentioned in the poem.

The illustrations in this book are scratchboard illustrations that use black lines, shapes, and crosshatched shading on white backgrounds. It also incorporates watercolor. There are a lot of lines in this book. Some are thick, but most are thin. This book is extremely detailed, using bright, warm colors with a few cool colors mixed in. The illustrations are big and bold, with the illustrations spreading out to cover both pages.

I really like this book. It’s fairly simple, with one line per page. This book would be perfect for younger children in grades K-2. The text is simple and straightforward. This is a good book to have students point out details that they see on the pages and to count how many swirls they see on a page. Swirl by Swirl would also make a good book to use during a science lesson because on each page, it identifies the animal, plant or thing described.