Meow Ruff: A Story in Concrete Poetry by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Michelle Berg.

A more organized blogger would save this one for a Poetry Friday entry, but I am just so excited by this book that I can’t wait!  This is one of my favorite books so far this year.  It is a must-see book.  Booklist starred it, and I resoundingly agree.

It is the story of a cat and dog who start out chasing each other but everything changes when they are caught in a rainstorm.  The entire landscape and all of the characters are created out of poetry.  Just reading across the pavement and the grass is amazing.  The changing cloud poems really capture the essence of being a cloud.  But my favorite has to be the tree poems that are so similar but so different.  Lovely!

And this is one poetry book that truly invites children in.  They probably will not recognize it as poetry at first, but that is part of its unique quality.  There is a rhythm to the words that matches so well the illustrations.  I was actually amazed after reading the book to find that it was done by two people rather than one.  Share this with kids!

Enjoy!