A collection of poems that provide a look at some of the animals, insects, and plants that are found in ponds, with accompanying information about each.

Come feel the cool and shadowed breeze, come smell your way among the trees, come touch rough bark and leathered leaves: Welcome to the night. Welcome to the night, where mice stir and furry moths flutter. Where snails spiral into shells as orb spiders circle in silk. Where the roots of oak trees recover and repair from their time in the light. Where the porcupette eats delicacies—raspberry leaves!—and coos and sings. Come out to the cool, night wood, and buzz and hoot and howl—but do beware of the great horned owl—for it’s wild and it’s windy way out in the woods!

From the creators of the Caldecott Honor Book Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems comes a celebration of ubiquitous life forms among us. Newbery Honor-winning poet Joyce Sidman presents another unusual blend of fine poetry and fascinating science illustrated in exquisite hand-colored linocuts by Caldecott Honor artist Beckie Prange. Ubiquitous (yoo-bik-wi-tuhs): Something that is (or seems to be) everywhere at the same time. Why is the beetle, born 265 million years ago, still with us today? (Because its wings mutated and hardened). How did the gecko survive 160 million years? (By becoming nocturnal and developing sticky toe pads.) How did the shark and the crow and the tiny ant survive millions and millions of years? When 99 percent of all life forms on earth have become extinct, why do some survive? And survive not just in one place, but in many places: in deserts, in ice, in lakes and puddles, inside houses and forest and farmland? Just how do they become ubiquitous?

Includes a reader's guide and an author's note.

A collection of concrete poetry where an animal is built out of words on paper.

Winter Bees & Other Poems of the Cold summons forth the charms and dictates of winter. Just as Joyce Sidman captured the drama of the pond in Song of the Water Boatman and the night woods in Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night, here she captures the drama of the cold. Why don't snakes freeze to death? How does the tiny honeybee survive frost? Learn about the secret lives of animals happening under the snow and how it buds to spring!

A celebration of canine companions in poems, prose, and pictures: “The selections are funny, adoring, exasperated, and most of all grateful” (Booklist). There’s no relationship quite like the ones we have with our dogs—dogs who befriend us; dogs who annoy, perplex, and accept us. This book explores the special bond between teenagers and their dogs—how days of crowded hallways, pointless assignments, and blinding crushes are brought to balance by our dogs. Including insightful poems by Joyce Sidman and essays in which teens speak for themselves, as well as beautiful photographs by Doug Mindell, The World According to Dog reminds us that at the end of the day, waiting at home, there is always Dog—full of hope and companionship.